Seasons Corner Market developers will head back before the Tiverton Planning board next month as they look to get preliminary plan approval for the controversial convenience store that would be built at Souza and main roads.

First proposed by Colbea Enterprises LLC in March 2022, the plan earned zoning board approval last May and master plan approval from the planning board in June 2023. Last Tuesday, Colbea attorney Rob Stolzman told planning board members that the plan has changed somewhat.

“We’ve reoriented the entrance and the exit (and) we’ve added a drive-through lane behind the property,” he said, adding that the changes would not affect the previous zoning board approval of three special use permits, or the planning board’s master plan approval.

Planning board chairwoman Cheryl Valentine said board members have been planning on holding a special meeting to discuss the project solely due to the amount of information involved, as well as public interest in the project. It will be held Tuesday, Sept. 15.

Residents still have questions about the zoning board of review's decision to grant the permits,  and those decisions are currently under appeal by abutters and opponents.

“I’m a little confused,” Jenn Fernandes, an abutter to the proposed store, told planning board members. “So, they have the right to waste time, because if the three special use permits are denied, this is a waste of time?”

Town solicitor Todd Romano said that while the appeal is still being heard at the court level, nothing is stopping the developers from presenting the preliminary plans to the planning board.

“There's no stay pending,” Romano said. “They have the right to present their application. We do not have the right to deny their application in the absence of a stay.”