As a proposal for a 111-seat Panera Bread in Newton Centre moves closer to approval by the city, the plan is stirring up dire warnings.
"Setting a precedent with Panera Bread will openly justify adding any 'fast' food restaurant anywhere; McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's; and just about any type of restaurant," wrote Mosher's owner Dana Mosher in a letter to aldermen. "How would you ever be able to say 'no' again?"
"Say 'no' to large national food chains, more traffic congestion and more parking problems" reads an e-mail sent to several dozen recipients.
The Board of Aldermen will take up the proposal at its Dec. 7 meeting at City Hall.
Alderman George Mansfield, who chairs the board's Land Use Committee, said this project has brought out the most public comment in the six years he's headed the committee. But he said passions run both ways, and abutters, merchants and other interested parties are evenly split on the restaurant.
"We've been getting e-mail communications that are split down the middle," Mansfield said. "People are strongly in favor and strongly opposed."
The restaurant would fill the space previously used by Tess, at 1239-1243 Centre St., across from the parking triangle, and would be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Panera has a store just over the Newton-Needham line on Highland Avenue. The company wanted to build a store in Wellesley's Linden Square this year but withdrew its application after residents protested that it violated the square's development agreement.
Panera needs the board's OK because it requires special permits. The most contested permit, Mansfield said, is a waiver for 25 required parking spaces. According to the Planning Board, since 1982 the city has waived fewer than 25 parking spaces for the entire Newton Centre area.
But, Mansfield said, about 30 of the restaurant's 111 seats would be on a patio and not likely in use from October to April. Another dozen would be in a "three-season room" that is enclosed but not heated.
"The waiver needed would be much smaller in the wintertime and more people are around in the wintertime," Mansfield said.
In October, the Land Use Committee approved the plan 4-0-2-2, with Mansfield and Amy Sangiolo abstaining. Mansfield said because there were so many concerns about parking, Panera agreed to improve parking in the area - providing curb cuts, improving the landscaping and pedestrian sidewalks of the Phelman Street lot and creating signs that let customers know the lot in the rear of the store exists in the first place.
"An awful lot of people have no idea there are lots behind those buildings," he said.
But other issues are in play as well, Mansfield said, noting that Newton Centre's three restaurants - Johnny's Luncheonette, Tango Mango and Sandwich Works - spoke out against the proposal at the October hearing.
"Merchants are worried for something we can't control - competition," Mansfield said.
And opponents are worried about the character of the Centre as well. One e-mail asks for the support of those "Not in favor of turning Newton Centre into a suburban mall."
And Mosher's letter to aldermen pleads for a different kind of store.
"Why not take the high road and add more high quality and class," Mosher wrote. "Why go with the lowest common denominator."
