OXFORD – Betsey’s Country Store, an Oxford landmark and lunch-counter gathering place for years, is going to be torn down.

In its place, the C.N. Brown Co., which bought the Welchville property from Betsey and Butch Lenberg a year ago, plans to erect a modern Big Apple Food Store.

The new 3,330-square-foot store will be built behind the current cinder-block building, with its distinctive wood clapboard facade. Once the current store is torn down, the four fueling stations in front will also be removed. Six fueling stations, also set further back from Route 26, will take their place, said Thomas Saucier of SYTDesign Consultants of Cumberland.

“It makes for a more orderly space, with some striped parking spaces,” he said. The number of curb cuts will be reduced, and access points will be moved farther from the corner of Route 26 and Route 121, he said.

That should make for a significantly safer traffic design, he added. C.N. Brown has applied to the state Department of Transportation for an entrance permit for the project.

On Thursday, the Oxford Planning Board approved the site plan application after a public hearing on the project.

In recent months the popular lunch counter inside the store has closed. Saucier said C.N. Brown has not yet finalized floor plans for the new store, and could not say whether a lunch counter would be part of the plan. He did say that the plans call for another tenant to share the space with The Big Apple Food Store.

Saucier said construction of the new store will begin as soon as all approvals are in place. The existing store will be left in place until the new store is constructed, he said.

“The project will improve the intersection,” he said.

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