Cumberland Town Council approves changes to Wrentham Road property

CUMBERLAND — Last April, it looked like there would be a dozen offices and an apartment in the troubled building at 48 West Wrentham Road. Now, the plans are for an ice cream shop that doubles as a breakfast spot.

A lot has changed in the past 13 months.

Nicholas Pacheco, an insurance agency owner who came before the Town Council with the plan for office space, decided not to purchase the building. In December, Michael Bouthillette purchased the building. The Town Council lost three members and got three new ones in their place.

Bouthillette envisions his proposal as “a place where the kids can go and have an ice cream after their ballgame, a place where you can go and have a coffee and a donut in the morning,” he said. He assured Town Council members that as long as he owns the property, he will never be “coming back here in the future for a liquor license and making it a party spot.”

The Town Council, which now largely lacks groups that predictably vote together, narrowly approved restaurant use on the property.

Councilors E. Craig Dwyer, Tom Kane, Jim Metivier and Peter Bradley voted in favor of the condition, while Robert Shaw, Lisa Beaulieu and Scott Schmitt voted against.

Voting last and pausing before announcing his choice, Council President Peter Bradley proved to be the swing vote and said, “Yes, because I want to see that place up and active, and knowing that there won't be any liquor on the premises.”

The last establishment operating at 48 West Wrentham Road was the Dancing Pig restaurant, which closed in 2012. The building, which sits on a 2.71-acre lot, was originally built as a Tudor-style singlefamily home but was converted to a bar/restaurant 30 years ago.

Prior to the Dancing Pig, a number of other establishments have opened and closed at the location over the years, including Joseph's and Over the Rainbow.

In April of 2016, Nicholas Pacheco came before the Town Council asking for a zone change, saying he was looking to purchase and rehabilitate the building but would only do so if he could convert it to office space.

The Town Council then approved the building for eight uses – including financial or real estate service, medical or dental office, bed and breakfast, and day-care center – but declined to approve it for restaurant use.

Neighboring resident Michael Plasse questioned at the time, “It all sounds good what the gentleman's promising, but what guarantees do we have that this couldn't change into something completely different?”

He added that he had concerns about allowing a restaurant because of problems in the past, such as intoxicated patrons loitering outside late at night.

Plasse returned to the Town Council this week to ask the Town Council to uphold its previous abandonment of restaurant use and said he doesn't understand why the council was back debating this.

“I think the council has a moral duty to support what they said they were going to do before,” Plasse said. He felt that Pacheco and the council “finally got it right” with the idea of an office building. Pacheco said in an email that he did not purchase the property, but he did not respond by print deadline on Thursday when asked when or why he decided not to purchase the property.

Plasse added, “I think the building's a bad design for a restaurant. It's a little off the beaten path.” He noted that has has spoken with a lot of neighbors who have concerns.

Another neighbor who spoke against the plan was Patrick Crump.

“The traffic on that road is horrendous,” he said. “It takes 10 minutes to get onto Mendon Road sometimes, so I really don’t understand how a place that [has] hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. would not be a serious impact on our neighborhood.”

Bouthillette said he heard reservations about the project at the last Planning Board meeting and knows there have been issues from past restaurants, but he argued that the ice cream shop/breakfast joint will have a lower impact and be more neighborhood-friendly.

Councilor Scott Schmitt, who tends to vote against zone changes and was the lone vote against the zone change last year, sided with Plasse this time around.

“For all intents and purposes in my mind, the restaurant use was forever abandoned,” he said. “I can’t get behind a zone change when we, as a council, just changed this.”

While Schmitt voted no on the zone change both last year and this year, Shaw said he was comfortable with voting in favor of the zone change last year and would be standing by it, thus voting no this week.

Mayor Bill Murray was also against the change, telling The Call after the meeting, “I would've liked to see what was originally agreed upon, with an office complex, because I totally agree with the neighbors that spoke, telling about traffic.”

He also thinks the new owner is going to have a lot of issues with the abutting wetlands and with the septic system.

But the Cumberland Planning Board voted unanimously on May 31 to recommend approval to the Town Council, with the following conditions:

1. No liquor be served on the premises

2. No “franchise fast food” use be allowed

3. Hours of operation be between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

4. A new stormwater runoff filtration system be installed at the western parking lot as per RIDEM Regulations

5. A vegetated buffer be installed between the eastern parking lot and West Wrentham Road

The Town Council approved the addition of a restaurant as an allowed use with these conditions.

“It all sounds good what the gentleman’s promising, but what guarantees do we have that this couldn’t change into something completely different?” —Concerned neighbor Michael Plasse