Minutes of February 7, 2006
Present were: Donald Anderson,
Chairman; Louis Calabrese, Vice Chairman, Marilyn Richards and Thomas
Morrissette. Michael Przybylowicz, Clerk
was not present at the meeting.
Donald Anderson welcomed Mr.
Pesce, Jayson Falcone, James Falcone and Frank Fitzgerald to the meeting. At this time, Mr. Pesce provided the Board
with a memorandum outlining what the group wanted to discuss with the
Board. Mr. Anderson stated that it would
be best to start at the top of the list and go through every item one at a
time.
He then read that the applicant is
looking to relocate the fire hydrant at the
Mr. Pesce stated that they were
looking for suggestions and feed back on the new plan and explained that the
fire hydrant was moved at the request of the fire department, it has been done
and he explained how the change was made.
Mr. Anderson asked if when requests come in from DPW and Fire is the
Planning Board informed about the changes?
He added if not, it is required that the Planning Board be the first
point of authority and that they need to have the most accurate plans in the
office because that is what the Board signed off on. Mr. Anderson suggested they could communicate
with other departments, as long as Robyn was informed first and that she have
any changes (proposed or otherwise) on file so that the Board knows something
is being done to their pre-approved plan.
Mr. Pesce said he felt that it was
a responsible request. He said the next
item was a suggestion from the contractor for the sidewalk relocation at
The Members said that they did not
see this to be an issue. Mr. Pesce said
the next item was the parking direction change in front of Rocky’s. He also stated that they had flipped the
angle of the parking at building B/E, and in doing so they lost one parking
space. He continued by stating that they
decided to eliminate the fenced-in propane area and put it below ground
permanently. Ms. Richards asked if the
Board had a report from the Police Department and Ms. Macdonald explained that
Sergeant Bates needs to see a finished plan before preparing a report. Mr. Pesce said next was the pylon sign
redesign for the
Mr. (Jayson) Falcone said the sign
would be off white and have incorporated the script they talked about as far as
Mr. Anderson asked if he had a
sample of the type of material that would be used for this sign? Mr. Falcone said he could obtain photographs
of the signs that are constructed of the same material and bring them to the
Board for review. Mr. Anderson said all
he was seeing was pvc and aluminum and just wanted to make sure the final
product is creating the image that it is projecting. Mr. Falcone said they are looking for
something that is sharp looking and not obnoxiously lit, something that fits
into the character of the town, but would try and get a piece of the panel so
that the Board could see it.
Mr. Anderson asked if the artist
rendering was trying to match the Rocky’s color to the Town of
Mr. Morrissette asked if the sign
would represent office tenants or just retail tenants. Mr. Falcone said it would depend on each tenant
and as they move forward leasing. Ms.
Richards said that the Board has not been approving any signs with LED
illumination. Mr. Falcone said when they
say LED they mean back lighting not LED as in light bulbs, Mr. (James) Falcone
added it is what illuminates the plastic.
Ms. Richards said the votes are all now no LED illumination and she does
not know how they would approve any such lighting. Mr. Falcone said that there are two different
types of LED illumination, there is LED such as a reader board and then LED
could be used to back light signs. Mr.
Anderson said the sign person should come in and demonstrate it to the Board
before they approve anything. Mr.
Morrissette said there is to be no exterior LED lighting.
Mr. Pesce said the next item is
the parking space changes and the brick
walkways. He said that the type of brick
they plan to use for the sidewalk is called Yankee Cobble and the color is
called Beacon Hill Blend and passed the sample around and asked for the Board’s
consent so they could go ahead and order it.
Ms. Richards asked what was going to be done about the concrete that was
poured on
Robyn
Macdonald as if she could interrupt so they could address the request for
waiver of site plan for US Academy of Martial Arts.
Mr. Morrissette read a letter into
the record from Attorney Alfred Geoffrion on behalf of Deborah and Kuen Soo Han
requesting a Waiver of Site Plan Review to relocate their martial arts school
to property at
Center Square Project –
discussion continued
At that time the Board continued
discussions with Mr. Pesce and Mr. Falcone regarding Center Square
Project. Mr. Pesce said he wanted to discuss parking spaces and
the tenants (Starbucks and Spoleto’s) who are interested in the project. He said the tenants have requested to make a
couple of changes to architectural look of the outside of the building that are
very minor. He said as a result of doing
that and recalculating parking they came up with a required number of parking
spaces of 629 and by redesigning some of the space and looking at the way they
would be using the loading dock, they were able to add parking spaces and
resulted in a net change that 2 more parking spaces needed to be added on the
rail trail. He said that 57 parking spaces are constructed, and back
in October, when they were told by Town Counsel that 5 spaces had to be
relocated from the library area or the
town would not release the money they were holding. He said because drainage was going in and the
pavement was being put down, they added those parking spaces, however a light
pole needed to be added.
Mr. Pesce said there are minor
changes to the parking spaces - there is a compactor pad and loading area pad
that will never be used. Further, that
after talking with the tenants they said they would never use them either. Mr. Pesce continued by stating that 2
dumpsters that will be supplied would be adequate for the intended uses and if
they need to add another dumpster there is room. Mr. Pesce
said with a 140 seat restaurant (Spoleto’s) and an 18 seat restaurant (Starbucks)
the parking calculations work out exactly to what they have - a couple of
parking spaces could be added, but if they do not have to it would be
good. Mr. Pesce continued by showing the
Board architectural changes Spoleto’s has asked for, and stated that he
developer thinks they are reasonable.
Specifically, they have asked to go from 2 doors to a single door and
wanted a brick instead of glass in front of their kitchen. He said on the side facing the Town Hall the
glass is the same but they moved the locations of the banding of brick around
and a single door over the entrance. Mr.
(Jayson) Falcone said that the column lines were the same and it is not 2 store
fronts it is only one tenant occupying the entire space. Mr. Pesce
said on the side facing Crane Avenue there is another entrance to
Spoleto’s and said it is very close to the original approved plan.
Ms. Richards asked if they could
talk about the target date. Mr. Pesce
said the target date for full occupancy of the building is the 1st
of July. Mr. Anderson asked when the
tenants would be in for site plan approval or waivers. Mr. Falcone said in the next few months. Mr. Pesce asked if they all need site plan
waivers and Mr. Anderson said every one of them.
Ms. Richards reminded the
developer that a restaurant use requires a Special Permit. She said, going back to the parking, she is
disappointed that there are as many parking spaces as they have in the rail
trail, that is off-site parking and she is concerned that the Town Hall is
going to lose because they are going to be concentrating all of the big
attractions in one location. Ms.
Richards said the parking being added to allow concentration on those uses at
the central location are on the rail trail and when the library spaces were
discussed, the Board said no more parking spaces on the rail trail.
Ms. Richards continued by stating
that the Board needs to know the actual square footage of Starbuck’s and also
Spoleto’s and asked about the basement that was added. Mr. Pesce said they asked for a basement for
cold storage and refrigeration, that
they have designed two ways to exit and a bathroom may be added for employees
to wash their hands. Mr. Morrissette
said with another level for storage that would enable them to fit more seats in
the restaurant and stated that the parking ratios would be off. Mr. (James) Falcone said as a retailer in the
area he has stores with 1,500 square foot basements, they have stores with
mezzanines and stores with no basements or mezzanines. He said there is need for a storage area on
the 1st floor and having extra storage just give buying power, in
some case it is efficient and some cases it is not - it depends on how some people run their
business. Mr. (James) Falcone added that
some people feel the fastest way to get product in and out of the door without
having to store it and handle it is an effective way to do business or a matter
of necessity. He said someone is not
required to have a certain number of square feet - however 15 to 20 % of the
back room space is needed for storage even if there is a full basement, so what
Ms. Richards is saying is not true.
Ms. Richards responded by stating
that the parking formula has very specific uses identified in the by-laws and
other uses such as Healthtrax (or a similar business) are not specific in the
by-laws. She said the Board looked at
the office space with respect to the physician space and came up with some kind
of formula that was fair with that particular use. She said they do not section out bathrooms or
hallways. She continued by stating that
now there is a use that is driven by a restaurant use (by seats), and now there
is a large area, that is a surprise to the Board (that a basement was going
in). Mr. (James) Falcone said they did
not know it was an issue and did not know they were required to tell the
Board. Ms. Richards said the project is
under a Special Permit.
Mr. Pesce said they never told the
Board Spoleto’s was going in until that evening and word has been transmitted
throughout the town, and the Town Hall has construction plans showing a
basement so they were not hiding it. Mr.
(James) Falcone said as far the building goes, being in the state of
Massachusetts, basement space is not calculated as part of the square footage
of the dwelling. Ms. Richards said it is
a concern to the Board if the use evolves down into the basement.
Dan Hellyer, the Building
Inspector, said it was a storage area and it was no different - according to
all of the codes if it is 6 feet above the ground it is considered a floor and
this is no different then if they put a slab down - they are only going to have
so many people and because they have a basement they are required to install
sprinklers but they do not get additional people allowed in the building. So if they have an occupant load of 140 seats
in that building and they have a big basement downstairs they can only have 140
seats in that building whether they have a slab or full basement.
Mr. Morrissette asked where the
140 seat number comes from. Mr. (James)
Falcone said it is based on the number of seats. Mr. Anderson asked if the number of seats
increases because of the cellar. Mr.
Falcone said no that the cellar has nothing to do with the occupancy. Mr. Anderson asked again if there was no
basement or mezzanine you would still have 140 seats? Mr. Falcone said yes. Mr. (James) Falcone said that they were
furnishing the parking according to the number of seats and not per square
foot, so the square foot calculation is not considered.
Mr. (James) Falcone said the
operator would have to make a business decision in terms of bringing product in
and getting product out and what makes the most sense for their business but it
has absolutely no impact on the occupancy of the building or the number of
seats. Mr. Morrissette asked how do
they know that some of the prep area for the salads aren’t going to be done
downstairs and brought up by a dumb waiter.
Mr. Calabrese said when the Board does the site plan for the restaurant
they could look back to what was done for Fusion. He added that Fusion brought a floor plan
that showed the amount of seating that they are going to have and that is what
they are going to have to do for this project.
Mr. Calabrese also stated that the Building Inspector is telling the
Board they can only use the downstairs for storage because it is a restaurant
and they are dealing with seating as opposed to square footage.
Ms. Richards asked if the 4,700
square feet is the floor space upstairs not including the basement? Mr. Pesce said correct. Ms. Richards said the Board needs to factor
what parking was applied to the square footage, minus that and then add the
parking required for 140 seats.
Mr. (James) Falcone said basically
they took the space that the tenants were using, took 5 cars per thousand and
put that back into the count and then they counted seats at 1 space for 3 seats
and added that to the count, so that is the adjustment came up with the need
for more spaces.
Mr. Morrissette asked what will
happen with the additional traffic trips?
Mr. (Jayson) Falcone said that they were well under the 750 per day for
high traffic uses. Mr. Pesce said he
brought the trip generation drafts and, for the record, there are two ways to
calculate trip generation: one is by square footage and one is by seats. He added that
he looked at both ways and neither of them are more than 400 trips a
day.
Ms. Richards said that is for
Spoleto’s what about Starbucks. Mr.
Pesce said that Starbuck’s was even smaller so neither use is over the 700
trips a day and it is actually less because Starbucks doesn’t get the same
number of patrons.
Mr. Anderson said he thought all
that got approved was the foundation to be poured because of the weather, but
once building permits get taken out and the Board does not know it gets down to
the Board approving a plan that is not correct.
He said the plan has to be correct and as long it is a work in progress
the Board still needs to have a copy of the building permit or copy of the plan
just to constantly have for the file.
Mr. (Jayson) Falcone said to
clarify Mr. Anderson’s comment, the footprint of the building has not changed
and the plan has not changed. Mr.
Morrissette said what the Board approved was to be a slab building and when
part of the slab is cut out and 5,000 square feet of basement is put in that is
a change to the plan. He said the
basement was never shown on the plan so a permit or building permit should have
never been issued without the Board having the opportunity to discuss it and
approve or disapprove a new plan.
Ms. Richards said the Board has
been doing research on the internet and looking at what is available in
Northampton and she needs to feel comfortable that it is being proposed as a
sit down dinner place with no curb service.
Mr. (Jayson) Falcone said they are looking at a full service restaurant,
lunch will be a lighter fare with sit down or take out. Ms. Richards said but with no curb service,
right? Mr. (Jayson) Falcone said that
is right. Mr. Morrissette said that
parking will be mess during lunch time from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. because
Starbucks and Spoleto’s will have overlapping times and they still do not know
what is going in the other stores.
Mr. Morrissette asked if they knew
who else was interested in moving in other than Super Cuts and would they be
they have appointments only or walk-ins?
Mr. Anderson said he thought that it was walk-in business based on their
commercials he saw. Mr. (Jayson) Falcone
said that a cell phone business was also interested and they were still
actively marketing the other spaces.
Mr. Pesce said that Spoleto’s’
also asked them to come up with a new landscaping scheme and that they will
bring those changes requested to the Board as soon they are ready.
Ms.
Richards said she was struggling with the fact that she had numerous
conversations with Mr. (James) Falcone before the project even became a reality
in terms of proposals before the Board and the discussions which were one on
one and were not taped or recorded and that she was really concerned with the
over-utilization of the site and the impact on traffic. She remembers Mr. (James) Falcone telling her
that the particular site could not handle a restaurant and that the most it
could take was a Starbucks. Ms. Richards
continued by stating that they talked about that and now there is a Starbucks
and a restaurant and parking spaces are being carved out in every little corner
– dumpsters are being moved that might be put back on parking spaces if they
realize they really are needed.
Ms.
Richards said the only thing she would add to the discussion was that the rail
trail was not in the picture in terms of taking advantage of some off site
parking. Jim said a restaurant integrated
into a site like this one is a whole
different animal than a free standing restaurant. Mr. Pesce said the only comfort that he could
add to the Boards consideration is that there is of common use area in both
buildings that will never be retail. He said
it’s arguable what the demand for the two restaurants is going to turn into
during the day because the peak and the evening for Spoleto’s were different
and obviously more spaces would be needed during the peak hours when the other
building usage would be a lot less.
Mr.
Pesce also said there was one thing that was not included on the list which is
an asphalt walkway across the island to accommodate the traffic. Mr. Anderson said the Board recognizes that
there are some deficiencies in the parking bylaw that has to be addressed, the
Board can’t cast a blind eye to that.
Mr.
(James) Falcone said one thing he would like to address is the other end of the
spectrum, there maybe one of the businesses that has a little more traffic then
thought but the Walgreen’s site is 15,000
square feet and is required to have 75 parking spaces, first of all it
is 15,000 square feet but only 10,000 square feet is retail, 10,000 out of
15,000 he asked if they ever seen 75 or even 25 cars there. Mr. Anderson said the purpose of project is
to create a center area with a good cross walk – that people might visit
Romito’s or walk over and visit everybody and have a true walking area for East
Longmeadow.
Mr.
(James) Falcone said the fact that is a village concept it lends itself to foot
traffic and the one thing they do not want to have is vacant stores and you
cannot have a successful shopping center that costs 1 ½ times more than strip center to build,
charging 1½ times more rent than a strip
center charges and hope that it is not going to do business. He said that they were all in this together
and it is going to be a spectacular place.
Mr.
Anderson said what he also needs to understand is being on the Planning Board
and a citizen of the town, this is a business and we have to make sure it stays
in business and the town people will not be discouraged because of parking
becoming a problem. He said that the
Planning Board is trying to make both elements work. Mr. (James) Falcone said he agreed with Mr. Anderson and parking is extremely
important and they think it is project that everyone would be proud of.
Ms.
Richards said they do not disagree and
Mr. Anderson said he was not against the tenants they were
choosing. Mr. Pesce said he felt there
was not going to be any problems having parking spaces available at 7:00 p.m.
and said look at the parking currently there are no issues.
Mr.
Morrissette said he thought you can see a traffic problem with just the
buildings that are up and he thinks down the road there is going to be a larger
issue. Mr. Pesce said that they are
faced with a real world problem, part of retailing Spoleto’s wanted to be in
that corner.
Mr.
Calabrese asked if the twp parking spaces they are short could be accounted for
in the rail trail. Mr. (James) Falcone
said they also have not taken that into consideration. He added that, in the past, the Town has
traditionally allowed a 20% recount for bathrooms or storage areas and for the
library storage space was 1 space per 3,000 square feet. Ms. Richards said that was because they did
not have a formula for libraries. Mr.
(James) Falcone said it has been traditional when people apply for a regular
permit and counted six spaces per thousand were allowed 20% reduction in space
for backroom areas. Ms. Richards said
not since she has been on the Board. Mr.
Falcone asked if check and if two cars make the difference they could build a
few hundred square feet less of building.
He also stated that they do respect their other neighbors and won’t put
a grinder shop in because of Romito’s.
Mr.
Falcone said that they are trying to have a good tenant mix and would be really
neat to be able to come to the town center and have a choice of a couple
restaurants and these stores will be something that the town does not have and
it is not a duplication. Mr. Anderson
asked if Starbucks was a franchise. Mr.
(James) Falcone said that all Starbucks are owned by Starbucks. Mr. Pesce thanked the board for their time
and left a couple of copies of the site plan and said he will send the
architectural color rendering.
Ms. Richards asked Mr. Pesce if he calculated into the location
the setback requirements regarding the placement of the signage. Mr. (Jayson) Falcone said that the set back
requirements for a ground sign was 12 feet.
Ms. Richards said the project talks about setback for signage the same
as the primary building in that location which would be unrealistic for that
particular project because it would be 50 feet from the curb. She said her point is that the sign is rather
substantial and she is looking in terms of visibility for people exiting the
site making sure their visibility is not impaired by the sign.
Mr. (Jayson) Falcone said 12 feet
seems to be the number that he recalled from the bylaw, Ms. Richards said she
knows that there is landscape buffer required also. Mr. Pesce said that the stop line is ahead
of the sign and the other sign is ahead of the line but if it need to be
adjusted it could. Mr. (Jayson) Falcone
said it would not be an obstruction of visibility.
Mr. Pesce said that Robyn
Macdonald has advised them that need to formally request approval for all of
the changes on the next agenda. Ms.
Macdonald said that the Board needs to make a determination whether or not the
changes are substantial enough to warrant an amendment and if that is the case,
that is a public hearing. Mr.
Morrissette said they cannot do anything without the Fire Department giving them
something on the fire hydrant and is DPW going to sign off on the relocation of
the sidewalk. Ms. Macdonald said she has
not spoken with anyone regarding changes proposed or made. Mr. Falcone added that he could ask his sign
designer to meet with the Board informally if they would like. Mr. Morrissette said especially in regards to
the LED’s.
Waiver of Site Plan Review – Bruce Miller, 174 North Main
Street
Mr. Morrissette read a letter into
the record from Bruce Miller requesting a Waiver of Site Plan Review to open a
Rare Coin Business at 174 North Main Street.
The business will consist of buying and selling rare coins, jewelry and
small antiques, hours of operations will be 9:00 am – 6:00 pm, closed on
Sundays, all holidays except for the Christmas Season. After review and discussion the Board would
ask Mr. Miller to attend their next meeting to discus the safety and appearance
of the store and also have him bring a color rendering of the sign he would
like to place at the business.
The Board endorsed the
subdivisions plans and the construction contract for Great Woods X.
The Board reviewed the ANR for
Great Woods VIII, Lot 6. Mr. Morrissette asked if there was proper square
footage and there was. After discussion
and upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted unanimously (5-0) to
approve the ANR.
There being no further business
and upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted unanimously to close
the public meeting at 10:30 p.m.
For
the Board,
Thomas
J. Morrissette, Acting Clerk