Chick-Fil-A Plans Revive Plaza Connector Talk

The owners of Westborough's Speedway and Belmont Plazas will meet next week about building a long-discussed connector road between their adjacent Route 9 shopping centers.

Plans for a Chick-fil-A chicken restaurant at Speedway, at 290 Turnpike Road, are driving the talk, which, town officials and Chick-fil-A representative Mark Donohue say, dates back to the mid-1980s, 

The connection was initially envisioned going through the site now eyed for Chick-fil-A, Westborough Planning Board Chairman Lester Hensley said during the board's special permit public hearing on the restaurant project last Tuesday night.

The restaurant now has presented an alternate location for the connection on its site.

At the planning board's request, the owners of the two plazas will hold a July 15 work session with town officials on the topic. Regency Centers Corp. owns Speedway, while Robert Kirsh owns Belmont.

The connection would "potentially reduce the impact on traffic not only at the immediate interchange but also at the route 9/135 interchange, which bears some of the burden" of traffic "departing Belmont Plaza east and wanting to turn west," Hensley said.

"Frankly, I'd like to see this connection completed as part of this. I think that both plazas would benefit," he said.

Donohue said Chick-fil-A is willing to design the connection and build the part  of it on the restaurant's site.

However, "we're not going to build to the property line, so that somebody can just all of a sudden start using it," he said.

"We see the properties 'down stream' as getting far more benefit than the Speedway Plaza," he said.

Kirsh said he is "not necessarily against" the connection.

But, "I have absolutely no interest in making a contribution monetarily. I'm struggling where we are now," he said.

Hensley said that Belmont Plaza, Bernie and Phyl's and Lowe's were designed with space allocated for the connection.

"In essence, they've already done the investment," he said.

The planning board's public hearing was continued to July 30.