MINUTES OF MEETING
November 5, 2008
Present: Chairman, Frank Palange, Vice-Chairman, Aldo Bertera, Secretary, Katie Harrington, Will Reichelt, and Alternate Jill Fortier.
Absent: Jose Irizarry
The Chairman called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m.
2. Acceptance of Minutes (Taken Out of Order)
Aldo moved to accept the minutes of October 15, 2008, as presented; Will second. UAV.
4. Approval Not Required (Taken Out of Order)
a. 117 Park Street the plan shows the consolidation of multiple parcels into one large parcel.
Frank moved to accept the ANR as presented; Will second. UAV.
b. 138-140, 152 Baldwin and 111 Norman Street the plan shows the consolidation of multiple parcels into one large parcel. The plan meets all frontage and access requirements.
Aldo moved to accept the ANR as presented; Will second. UAV.
3. Action Items (Taken Out of Order)
a. Ordinance Amendments – No new business.
b. Subdivision Regulations – No new business.
5. New/Old Business (Taken Out of Order)
a. Site Plan Review - No new business.
b. Subdivision Review – Richard said Canterbury Woods age-restricted development is looking for a release of covenant with the development being 90 percent complete. They are asking for verification from the Town that their $130,000 bond is sufficient for the completion of the project. Richard said he was waiting for official comment from DPW, and did not foresee any issues and recommended the Board vote to release the covenant for the monetary bond pending approval of the DPW.
Aldo moved to release the covenant pending approval from the DPW; Will second. UAV.
c. Board of Appeals – Richard reviewed the agenda for November.
d. Other Business – Richard informed the Board that the Mayor has requested a revised budget from all departments showing a 3.5 percent cut and a 7 percent cut.
1. Public Hearings (Taken Out of Order)
7:00 p.m. (7:09 p.m.) – Scarfo Construction, Inc. (Special Permit) from Table 5-1 of the Zoning Ordinance regarding common driveways. The property is located at 1359 Morgan Road in the Residence A (RA) zoning district. Continued from 10/15/08.
Richard said they are awaiting the closing on the property so the hearing should be continued for now.
Aldo moved to continue to December 3, 2008, at 7:00 p.m.; Will second. UAV.
7:00 p.m. (7:12 p.m.) – WS Town Council (Zoning Ordinance Amendment)- amend Section 9.025 relating to grandfathering of existing residential driveways.
Councilor Romaniak came forward and said the reason for this petition is that she has received calls from residents who cannot pave their driveways because under Section 9.025 driveways cannot be wider than 15 feet. This creates a problem with the apron area on the tree belts. She said they would like to grandfather these regulations. The other problem is under Section 9.034 access driveways are not allowed closer than 30 feet from one and other.
Frank said one problem with grandfathering these driveways is that people then pave the tree belt area to create more spaces for three and four cars. How can you decide what is grandfathered and what is not? Ms. Romaniak said the Director of the DPW would decide. There are not that many illegal driveways as compared to the legal driveways.
Councilor Bourque came forward and said you cannot pick and choose who can do what with their property. There are three areas that are affected by the current Zoning Ordinance; the size of the driveway, the 30-foot separation between, and being 40 feet from an intersection. Ms. Bourque handed out examples of driveways that cannot be repaved under the current ordinance and she proposed allowing existing access drives to be repaved. This applies to existing driveways only and if we do not do something there are people who will pave without a permit. If the Planning Board has a better suggestion, they would be open to hear it. Ms. Bourque said Northwood Avenue has 10 to 12 houses with issues of repaving.
Frank asked what is the issue when the residents call? Ms. Bourque said people that have come to get a permit to repave their driveways and access driveways have been denied because their driveway was 24 feet wide with a 24-foot wide access drive. The Zoning Ordinance says you can only pave up to 15 feet and they would have to tear up the additional pavement and plant grass. All of the residents who called were denied permits.
Aldo asked if a permit was required to work in the tree belt or to do work on the driveway? Ms. Bourque said the town requires a permit to work in the street.
The Board discussed permits for paving versus having permits to work in the street.
Ms. Bourque said if that was the case, then that leaves access drives in disrepair. When the Town repaves the sidewalks, they also redo the access driveways to whatever they were before. Frank asked if it was the permit to pave the driveway or a permit to be in the street. Ms. Romaniak said the permit is to occupy the streets, public ways, and the residential driveway location.
Frank said you cannot blanket grandfather driveways; they need to take a look at the regulations.
Ms. Bourque said grandfathering driveways that are within 30 feet of each other or within 40 feet of an intersection and allow the driveway up to 24 feet. There is currently no appeal process in place for permitting driveways.
Ms. Romaniak said they met with Jack Dowd, Director of the DPW, to come up with something without re-writing the ordinance.
Richard referenced his memo, dated October 6, 2008, to Mike Finn recognizing deficiencies with the DPW policy and with the Zoning Ordinance, but he did not believe a blanket grandfathering would be appropriate because certain situations have occurred and created safety issues. Richard recommended the regulations be taken out of the Zoning Ordinance and put into the policies of the DPW, creating greater flexibility on a case-by-case basis and an appeals process can be set up. The Planning Director would be the appeals officer. The only appeals process now is through the Zoning Board of Appeals, which is a 6-8 week process under a Variance process requiring a hardship finding with the soil, shape, or topography of the land, which is a difficult hurdle to overcome. Richard recommended amending the DPW policy. In the early 1990’s there was no DPW oversight and the Planning Board adopted standards through Town Meeting. Due to new development within the Merrick area and with many
properties without existing driveways that could comply with the DPW standards or the Zoning Ordinance, the Town needs to provide flexibility to review on a case-by-case basis.
Frank said he had a problem with leaving that up to only one person to decide on a case-by-case basis. The Planning Board should decide or a group. If only one person reviews then that may lead to favoritism. Richard said then the alternative would be to keep everything in the Zoning Ordinance and the appeals process would be timely and difficult through the ZBA.
Ms. Bourque agreed that only one person reviewing and deciding would be a problem. The DPW does not follow the Zoning Ordinance and removing it from the Zoning Ordinance and put into the DPW’s policy is taking away authority from a legislative body and this would not be approved. We need to work together and come up with an amendment. Ms. Romaniak said she does not want to remove it from the Zoning Ordinance and put under one person’s jurisdiction. Ms. Romaniak said she would like to work with the Planning Board on coming up with something.
Aldo said he did not see anything wrong with the way driveways are now. New homes will have to comply with the correct width and limit older driveways to what they have. The tree belts should not be paved.
Frank asked for comments from the audience. No comments followed.
Katie said she felt the Board needed to work on this more. Aldo suggested attending a Council subcommittee meeting. Ms. Romaniak said it would not be on the subcommittee agenda until they receive action from the Planning Board.
Katie moved to continue the hearing to December 17, 2008, at 7:00 p.m.; Will second. UAV.
7:05 p.m. (7:51 p.m.) – Associated Builders, Inc. (Site Plan Review) – For the construction of a 15,940 square foot, two-story medical office building with site improvements at 271 Park Street in the Business A-1 (BA-1) zoning district.
Peter Wood, President of Associated Builders came forward and introduced project engineer Doug Mattoon, who would present the project to the Board.
Doug Mattoon said the Board had just approved the ANR plan for this site, which was previously owned by New Alliance Bank. Six lots are to be consolidated into one contiguous lot consisting of approximately 1.28 acres. The building will be a two-story building, built to accommodate the business needs and parking requirements of New England Spine and Sports. This will be a medical office building consisting of physician’s offices, rooms for physical therapy, as well as their corporate headquarters. This is a use by right in the Business A and Industrial zoning districts. There are 80 parking spaces at the site, using angular parking entering on Western Avenue and circling within the site itself. There is an entrance and exit only on both sides of the building. There is also a designated loading area for delivery trucks to park and enter the building. Mr. Mattoon described the landscaping area and the species of trees would be discussed further with the Planning Department.
Mr. Mattoon showed the plan of the different areas of the building and the elevator and stairs to the second floor, which would be used for administrative offices only.
Mr. Mark Reed of Heritage Surveyors explained the storm water management system for this project. There is a large paved area that will remain. Mr. Reed explained that he met with DPW and Planning to review the project and they came up with a system that recharges the storm water on the site without impacting the streets. The system is sized to retain a 100-year storm event on site. The report shows a decrease in storm water as to what exists now. There will be two detention basins to facilitate roof run-off and recharge the water back into the ground.
Mr. Mattoon said they have worked closely with the town departments to come up with a plan that is beneficial to the applicant and the town. Handicap access spaces are designed to be located in the front of the building with one van accessible and two located at the other entrances. All the entrances to the facility will have handicap accessibility.
Mr. David Katz, Chairman of the Disabilities Commission, said he spoke with Mr. Moore, the Building Commissioner regarding the requirement of 20 percent of the 80 parking spaces need to be handicap for a medical facility. Mr. Moore would like something in writing that four handicap spaces are satisfactory with the AAB. Mr. Mattoon said the current plan provides five percent of the parking as handicap spaces. Mr. Mattoon said he would speak with the Building Commissioner on the handicap parking.
Frank said he was skeptical that UPS and FedEx delivery vans would use the designated space for unloading. They usually pull up to the front door. Doctor Ron Paasch said at their current location there are no problems with delivery trucks not using the designated space. They are usually the same drivers on the route and they follow procedure.
Frank asked for comments from the audience. No comments followed.
Richard said all issues were addressed with Health and the DPW.
Katie moved to close the public hearing; Aldo second. UAV.
Katie moved to approve the site plan as in the draft approval; Aldo second. UAV.
5. New/Old Business (Continued)
d. Other Business – Frank informed the Board that Raymour and Flanagan wants to discuss the Olive Garden decision at the November 19, 2008, meeting of the Board. Richard explained that Attorney Sypek would like condition 1a removed which requires Mass Highway approval before a building permit is issued. They are having problems now with retiming the traffic equipment, and because they have delayed so long now, it may need to be upgraded. The Board discussed and said they want approvals before the issuance of a building permit.
6. Date of Next Meeting
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board will be held on Wednesday, November 19, 2008.
7. Adjournment
Katie moved to adjourn the meeting at 9:02 p.m.; Aldo second. UAV.
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Katie Harrington, Secretary
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