Gulf expansion hurting neighbors

My neighborhood used to be shielded from the business (and its noises) by a landscaped, three-lot buffer zone, including a magnificent four-story stand of healthy, decades-old evergreens – likely those planted as a condition of the 1965 special permit allowing Gulf Corporation to build a modest two-bay gasoline service station at the corner of Neponset and East Cross.

The station was meant to stay small and apart, compatible with a neighborhood zoned for single-family residences. The property is not in a commercial zone.

The verdant green buffer was important to my family when we moved here in 1990. It stood for nearly half a century until the current owners acquired the property from Cumberland Farms, and the town approved the third bay addition in 2012. In 2013, the border fence and the first batch of evergreens were removed from behind the new third bay, and the grass on the three adjacent lots was replaced with gravel.

On August 30-31, 2017, without notifying neighbors of their intent or consulting any town officials, and likely contrary to special permit stipulations and several bylaws, the business clear-cut all but two of the remaining evergreens the owner was required to maintain.

This has robbed the neighborhood of its quiet beauty and interfered with the use and enjoyment of our homes. We are exposed to previously obstructed sights and sounds of the business and Neponset Street traffic, loud overnight noises, such as the backup beeping that startles me awake, and light pollution from the growing number of harsh, high-intensity lights on the expanded structures, such as, the asphalt parking lot that replaced two of the three verdant lots – now lit up at night like a Providence Highway auto dealership – and the recent addition that was approved for a brick exterior but was built with gray, commercial-grade metal siding.

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Now Norwood Gulf wants to expand again! The owners seek a special permit to add 75% more to the structure and double the service bays from three to six. If you believe, as I do, that this has to stop, please join me at the Zoning Board of Appeals Hearing at the Senior Center, 275 Prospect Street, on Tuesday, May 6, at 7 PM, or share your thoughts with the ZBA by email, comdev@norwoodma.gov 

Brian P. Palmateer

Norwood