FARMINGTON – A dream of owning their own business moved a step closer to reality for Nicole Marquis and Seabren Reeves Monday night when the Farmington Planning Board unanimously approved a site review application.

The two University of Maine at Farmington students said it was a good thing the Planning Board approved their proposal of opening a consignment and retail shop at 131 Bridge St., owned by Naomi Henderson, because clothing to sell in the store has already started arriving and the store is already laid out in their minds.

The pair hope to open 82 Consignment and Retail by Aug. 1. The store will be open at night, after they are out of classes for the day, and will cater to high school and college students through the sales of new and used clothing.

They said they are excited about their first business venture, and see a need for this type of business in the Farmington community.

The Planning Board also collectively approved a request from the Old South Congregational Church to use a building at 227 Main St. for a parish house. Additional space in the building, which was recently renovated, will be rented out to area non-profit groups.

An application to build a doctor’s office that will house Dr. Jeffrey Johnson’s podiatry practice at 218 Wilton Road was also unanimously approved. Johnson has outgrown his practice on Route 133 and will relocate to the Wilton Road location.

After back-and-forth discussion, the board also agreed to accept a soil erosion/stormwater management application, as well as a shoreland zoning permit application, from James F. Meader, who hopes to haul in 4,000 cubic yards of fill in preparation for two house lots on the Morrison Hill Road.

Abutters expressed concern over what the developed property would look like when complete, but Meader assured them it would “be done right when it’s done. I am trying to take a piece of land and make it better, that’s all I am trying to do,” he said.

Filling in the land and prepping the two lots for home lots would take four to five years, he said. A concern that silt would runoff into a brook that weaves through the property before joining with Temple Stream was addressed, but code enforcement officer Steve Kaiser assured the board he had confidence in the applicant and that the Department of Environmental Protection was monitoring the location.

Planning Board member Thomas Eastler, who is also a geology professor at UMF, suggested that the clay be tested at the site.

“I think it’s a positive thing to happen there,” Eastler did say though, adding that it was for the “betterment of the neighborhood” and the “value” of the neighborhood that the lot be developed.

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