News and notes from around town:

• A plan to build a new Dillons grocery store on south Massachusetts Street has hit its first snag. The city’s Board of Zoning Appeals last month declined to approve two key variances needed for the project. Instead, it delayed action on the request after some neighborhood concerns surfaced. The board will take the issues back up again at its Feb. 3 meeting.

The variances both involve Dillons’ decision to have the new store face to the north, instead of to the west like the existing store does. That design decision hasn’t been overly popular with some neighbors, who believe it will put more traffic on largely residential streets such as New Hampshire and 18th streets.

Dillons is asking for a variance from the city code that would require the store to be set back 25 feet from both Massachusetts and New Hampshire streets. Instead, the store wants the setback reduced to zero, meaning it could go right up to the sidewalks, kind of like a downtown store does today.

But a more interesting variance is one that seeks to reduce the amount of parking at the site. The store currently provides 178 spaces. The new store, even though it will be slightly larger, will need to provide 150 spaces. (The city’s parking code has changed considerably from when the store was built in the 1960s.) But Dillons is asking for a variance that would reduce the parking requirement to 129 spaces.

Although parking is often easily available at the store today, the issues are beginning to add up for some residents. Several neighbors met with Dillons representatives and planning staff members last week. Planning director Scott McCullough told me that issues related to the building’s northern orientation, setback, vehicle and truck access and general design issues were discussed. But he said there was “no final resolution on what Dillons might revise to address the neighborhood’s concerns..

In talking with a few neighbors, it is pretty clear that there is a delicate balancing act that is going on here. There’s a concern that if the city pushes Dillons too hard for design changes that the company may scrap the project or relocate it farther from east Lawrence. The neighborhood, it appears, doesn’t want to lose its grocery store and is excited about some of the amenities a new store would include. No word from Dillons yet on whether it considers these variance issues to be a dealbreaker.

• Plans to renovate the Santa Fe Depot in east Lawrence appear to have been dealt another setback. As previously reported, the city wants to purchase the depot at Seventh and New Jersey streets in order to improve its condition and restore the 1950s era building. But it doesn’t want to purchase the building from the railroad until it receives a federal or state grant to largely pay for the $600,000 in needed repairs. But it is hard to get a grant for a building you don’t own. So, the city has been hoping to strike a deal with Burlington Northern Santa Fe to buy the building contingent upon the city being awarded a grant. This week, news comes from the railroad that it is not interested in such a deal.

“It appears that BNSF does not wish to dedicate additional time and cost related to working through the issues that the city staff has set forth . . . if there is not a a firm probability that a real estate closing is imminent,” Diane Stoddard, assistant city manager, wrote in a recent memo.

The city could move forward with purchasing the building without a contingency. But that could open the city up to quite a bit of liability. Several of the building’s needed repairs include improvements to make the facility ADA complaint. Commissioners previously have said they are concerned about taking over ownership of the building without firm funding to make those improvements that likely could not be put off if the building were in city ownership.

Nothing also will stop the city from continuing to apply for grants, but there is a concern the city won’t be successful without having ownership of the building.

The railroad has confirmed it has no plans to make substantial improvements to the building, which does serve as the city’s Amtrak depot.

“BNSF has indicated it will keep the building up to city code, but not improve the facility,” Stoddard wrote.

• The city soon will be losing its economic development planner and coordinator. Roger Zalneraitis will be leaving the city in late February to become the executive director of the La Plata Economic Development Alliance in Durango, Colo. Zalneraitis has been the city’s chief analyst on economic development projects. His duties include calculating the cost/benefit analysis for tax abatement requests; researching issues related to incentives such as Tax Increment Financing and Community Improvement Districts; and analyzing perspective projects and economic development initiatives.

Zalneraitis, who began with the city three years ago, said the opportunity was too enticing to pass up.

“When I went back to grad school for an urban planning degree, my goal was to get an intellectually challenging job in the mountains,” Zalneraitis said. “This really fits all the criteria.”

Zalneraitis was the city’s first economic development planner/coordinator. During his tenure, he thinks the city has become more confident in evaluating potential business projects and incentives. He said there are issues the city likely will need to address in the future.

He said the debate over whether the city ought to do more to spur the retail industry will be an interesting one. In particular, the question of whether the city ought to be involved in special taxing districts, such as Community Improvement Districts, will be a key one.

“I’m not saying necessarily that the city ought to offer CIDs, but I think it is an issue that will keep coming around. If the city’s pull factor continues to decline, the city may have to decide whether it wants to be more aggressive when it comes to retail.”

Zalneraitis said downtown’s future also will be one that requires future discussion.

“I’ve heard it said, and I tend to agree with it, that the best way to keep downtown vibrant is to build up, to build taller buildings,” Zalneraitis said. “But I think there is some trepidation about that in the community.”

The city already has begun to advertise to fill the position. The city’s offering a starting salary of $70,000 to about $83,000 per year, and is seeking someone with an advanced degree in economics, finance public adminstratiation or a related field.

• A question about the future of the Quiznos on South Iowa Street remains. The store at 2540 Iowa Street has still not reopened, but a spokeswoman for Quiznos did recently call me back after the store was mentioned in Town Talk. She said plans call for the store to reopen as a corporately owned store, but no date for an opening has been determined.