Minutes of August 8, 2006
Present
were: Marilyn Richards, Acting Chair; Donald Anderson, Clerk, Thomas Morrissette
and Michael Przybylowicz. Louis
Calabrese was not present.
ANR -
The members welcomed Tom Sweeney
who resides on
Mr. Sweeney said that
Ms. Richards said that she went to
look at the street that evening before the meeting and she said that he was
right that the street is a mess that no one is arguing that and the homeowners
do deserve a safe road. She said that
the concern extends from the Planning Board and what is in its power to control
at this point. She asked Ms. Macdonald,
for the Boards’ benefit, to explain the circumstances through a time line.
Ms. Macdonald explained that she
and Mr. Miorandi met with Mr. Sweeney and they agree that the road is a
mess. However, Attorney Donahue has told
the Town not to touch the road because it is a private way. Ms. Macdonald explained that there is an
insurance bond in place. Further, in
2005 she (the Town) put in a claim through Town Counsel who informed her that
the insurance company denied the claim.
She also wanted the members to know that the bond had not lapsed as
indicated by Mr. Sweeney, and the matter continues to be in the hands of Town
Counsel.
Ms. Macdonald said if the bond is
collected then the town can use the money to start to fix the road and at that
point, when the street is taken by the town,
chapter 90 money can be used to complete the repairs. Mr. Morrissette asked what the amount of the
bond was? Ms. Macdonald said
$38,000.00. Ms. Richards asked if that
was enough to cover the need, Ms. Macdonald said no. Mr. Morrissette asked if the original bond
had been reduced following completion of
certain aspects as normally occurs? Ms.
Macdonald said yes, up until a certain point Ron Decoteau was doing the work he
was supposed to. She added that at the last reduction it was for the
installation of the base coat, which, at that particular time, was fine. She said over time and weather, and the road
not being finished, it has deteriorated.
Mr. Anderson asked if it was a street that has been accepted and never
taken? Ms. Macdonald said no it was
never finished, that Mr. DeCoteau never applied the top coat and the catch
basins need to fixed, potholes need to be filled, the berm is destroyed and DPW
is afraid that the pipes underneath the road may be in need of repair. Further, she added that there never was a
request for acceptance.
Mr. Anderson asked why the Town
cannot get involved and take care of it?
He also asked whether there is a time line and if the Town provides the
repairs, the Town would reserve the
right to keep the bond money. Ms.
Macdonald said touching the street while it is still private would void the
bond. She reiterated that, according to
Attorney Donahue, the town could not collect on the bond if any work is done by
the Town.
Mr. Morrissette asked when was the
bond requested? Ms. Macdonald said in
October 2005. Mr. Morrissette asked if
the events needed to take place to default on it and for us to collect take
place had taken place? Ms. Macdonald
said yes however, the insurance company is claiming that the Town did not
notify them in time. The representative
feels that Mr. DeCoteau’s last work was in 1999, which is not the case. She said there are other communications,
bills and inspections that went on past 1999 and the Town Clerk’s Office up
until 2 months ago was still communicating with him regarding monies that were
due.
Mr. Przybylowicz asked if there
was any indication on what it would take to restore the road? Ms. Macdonald said no. Mr. Sweeney said that the Board of Public
Works told him $22,000.00 and then some said with the top coat $30,000.00 and
someone else said now you have to redo the base coat because there is grass
growing through it because it was not put down properly. He said that someone in the Town signed off
on it and someone made a comment “well that’s the Planning Board for you”.
Mr. Anderson asked the last time
Attorney Donahue took any action on the matter?
Ms. Macdonald said about 3 or 4 weeks ago. Mr. Anderson said he would
like, by their next meeting, a status report from Attorney Donahue.
Mr. Sweeny said the DPW driver got
a very good shock last year when he hit one of the potholes with his plow
during a snow storm. Mr. Anderson asked
if the situation was that the insurance company needs to take pictures of it? Ms. Macdonald said that they have
pictures. Mr. Anderson asked what is the
reason that it cannot be done, does the insurance company want to reinvestigate
it ? Ms. Macdonald said that they are
saying that they were not notified in time.
Mr. Anderson said but we are still negotiating with them, so it does not
make sense; and, if they have already looked at the site, why cannot the Town
try to patch what they can?
Mr. Sweeny said he asked the Board
of Public Works if they could patch it and worry about it later, they said no
because that issue is between you and the insurance company. He said what if the bond does not pay off and
if it does not pay off that means if the Town does something wrong then there
is a lawsuit on your hands. Mr. Anderson
said by the next meeting he wants something form Attorney Donahue. Ms. Macdonald asked if they would like him to
come in. Mr. Anderson said please. Mr. Sweeney said his only concern is what if
Attorney Donahue says that DPW cannot fix it and it goes on for 6 years? Ms. Macdonald said if the bond is absolutely over
and the insurance company is no longer negotiating with the Town then the Town
will have to take the road over. Mr.
Sweeney asked how long would that be and he does not want to wait 6 months to a
year to find out. Ms. Macdonald added
that it was not any help to Mr. Sweeney or his neighbors, but about 10 years
ago the Town realized insurance bonds were not working out for anybody and now
the only kind of bonds accepted are cash bonds.
She further explained that if anything happens and the developer does
not respond within 30 days, the town notifies them that the Town is going to
use their money and fix the street. Mr.
Anderson asked Ms. Macdonald to ask Town Counsel to be at the next meeting to
discuss this matter. Mr. Sweeney said
that he would like to be present also, the Board said that he was more than
welcome, that Ms. Macdonald would notify him.
Request for Waiver of Site Plan
Review – Douglas White, 245C
Ms. Macdonald said Douglas White
Electrical Services would be doing contracting electrical work and the Board
requested a parking plan. Ms. Macdonald
requested that someone be present in
case the Board had any questions and Mario Cavolinale, Treasurer was
present. Clerk, Donald Anderson read the
request for waiver stating that signage would be requested at a later date.
Mr. Cavolinale said their
intention is to use the space for storage for tools and maybe some overstock of
electrical supplies. Mr. Morrissette
asked how big the garage was. Mr.
Cavolinale said that it is 30 x 32.
Mr. Przybylowicz asked if there was going to be an office or
phone line.
Mr. Cavolinale said no, that they are starting off on a shoe-string
budget and his partner has a home office at his house and he will be taking
business calls there and they will be using cell phones for now.
Ms. Richards said basically it is
going to be for your people going back and forth and no customers will be going
to that location. Mr. Cavolinale said
correct if they are there four times a month, that will be a lot.
Mr. Morrissette asked will there
be any vans? Mr. Cavolinale said no that
the vans would be parked at his partner’s home. With no further discussion, and upon motion
duly made and seconded, the Board voted unanimously (4-0) to approve the
request for waiver of site plan approval.
The Board reviewed the parking plan presented and approved it for the
use.
Ray LaPlante – Discussion for
zone change at
Present was Ray LaPlante and Rich
Gale. Mr. Gale explained that they were
looking for some feedback from the Board as far as what they are
proposing. He said they would like to
put up an office building that would be residential looking and are looking to
submit a request for a zone change to a commercial zone. Mr. LaPlante said that the building elevation
would fit and it would be about 5,600 square feet. Mr. Anderson asked if the only tenant would
be the LaPlante construction company and not any other commercial uses? Mr. LaPlante said that they would like to
occupy the 1st floor and rent the second floor to other types of
commercial businesses.
Mr. Anderson said first of all he
agrees that site is an eyesore as it stands and he thinks it would be
absolutely beautiful, but the hard part is the commercial zone situation. He said once it is rezoned commercial then
it opens the property up to every type of commercial use - even if you get the
town’s people to approve it then it has to be approved by the Attorney
General’s Office. Ms. Richards asked
what the size of lot was. Mr.
Morrissette said that it was almost an acre.
Mr. LaPlante said what he would
like to do is to talk with Quinn about the 20 foot easement and try to do
something so they could use it to access the parking lot and put up a nice
buffer area between the residential properties.
Mr. Przybylowicz asked what would be stored in the parking
area. Mr. LaPlante said it would be
strictly be their offices and cars would be in the parking lot – no commercial
vehicles.
Ms. Macdonald said one of the good
things about the commercial zone compared to the industrial zone, is that the
commercial zone is really limited in the uses allowed - most of which are
office uses.
Ms. Richards said that the Board
knows that she has talked with Ray LaPlante regarding this particular option
and if you look at the way our zoning map is carved out there are sections in
town where the commercial district is used to separate the business zone from
the residential zone and is often a buffer.
She said the problem is the size of the parcel and the fact that there
is a parcel below that is equally multiple zoned and, depending on what happens
on this parcel, might potentially direct a request on that parcel to do the
same thing.
Mr. LaPlante said if you look at
the zone line he guesses that portion could be left industrial. Ms. Richards said right now it is and said
she sees what he is saying. Mr.
Morrissette said that this is spot zoning and the board and town could endorse
it 100% and still be turned down by the Attorney General because it directly
impacts or helps you more than it helps anybody else. He said it does not help the Town, it does
not help anybody but you.
Mr. Laplante said he spoke with
Attorney Beglane and he talked with Town Counsel and from what Attorney
Beglane says it is not considered spot
zoning. Mr. Anderson said get them an
opinon, bring us some language because we have our own research that Ms.
Macdonald has been doing and we are citing cases that tend to differ with that
opinion.
Mr. Przybylowicz said that they have kicked this property
around several times, that many people like you approach us and ask what can we
do with this property and we have always been stonewalled with it being zoned
what it is and possibly being converted to commercial and we have always come
across that spot zoning issue.
Ms.
Richards said that Ms. Macdonald has supplied the Board with some valuable
information about spot zoning and the criteria that the Attorney General would
be using for this kind of request, and it is really difficult. She said it is a difficult battle to fight as
a town to say that we really want that piece commercially zoned and the only
thing that she keeps looking at is that the town could tear down the building,
we could throw grass on it, if that is what the town is willing to do, and
right now it is not in the best interest of anyone. Ms. Richards said that the grass is high and
she is sort of resentful of the property owner who lives in East Longmeadow,
who lives in a beautiful neighborhood and he is allowing this piece of property
to exist in this condition.
Ms.
Richards also said that she knew why the owner was allowing it, because the
worse it gets, the more aggravated the town will be and the more motivated we
will be to do something, which is finically beneficial to the property
owner. She said that they were caught
between a rock and hard place because this is a main road in town and we want
it to look nice and that would look absolutely beautiful. Ms. Richards said that one way that they
could get by the spot zoning issue if we could defend that this change is in
the best interest of the community as a whole, simply by removing the existing
building.
Mr.
LaPlante said that it was a perfect transition from industrial to residential
and he thinks that would provide a benefit to the town. Ms. Richards asked Mr. LaPlante if he had
some kind of purchase and sale agreement?
Mr. LaPlante said that he has a deposit on the property at the listed
price.
Ms.
Macdonald said worst case scenario if you end up not getting rezoned to
commercial you could always construct a house on the lot. She said that she is really interested in
what case law Attorney Beglane has to allow the Board to at least see both
sides of it before you put money into the engineering necessary for the plan.
Mr.
Morrissette said that there was no doubt in his mind that the town would be
better off with a new building on the property and having Mr. LaPlante as an
owner/tenant because it is going to look
nice forever. He said if his questions
was whether the Board would support a zone change he is not sure how they would
go about supporting it, we could use the same argument that we have been using
that it would be better for the town. He
said it still would go against the zoning by-laws of the town and how does the
Board support something that goes against the zoning by-laws for the town?
Ms.
Richards said she would like to see what Attorney Beglane has to say and have
him give something to Ms. Macdonald and then she could forward to the
Board.
Request for Site Plan Approval
– Ron Bretta, 603 North Main Street
Ms. Richards said for the record
with regard to the 7:00 public hearing on a Site Plan Approval for Ron Bretta,
the board received a written request to continue the hearing until August 22nd
at 7:15 p.m. Therefore, upon motion duly
made and seconded, the Board voted unanimously (4-0) to continue the hearing to
that date and time.
Request for Waiver of Site Plan
Review – Mildred Colon, Computer Gig, 21 North Main Street
Clerk, Donald Anderson read a request for waiver of site
plan approval to open a computer sales, repair and service office in an
existing building located at 21 North Main Street, East Longmeadow. The hours of operation will be Monday through
Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and by appointment only on Saturday. This site is an existing site for retail
businesses and has an approved parking plan on file which has been previously
dated and signed by the Planning Board.
Miscellaneous
Ms. Macdonald told the Board that
Chris Grazino had called her to find out if he could put up a 3’x8’ banner on
the fence at the Center Field for a school fundraiser for 30 days. Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board
voted unanimously (4-0) to allow the temporary banner for 30 days.
Mr. Morrissette asked if the Board
approved a “Now Open” sign for Starbucks?
Ms. Macdonald said she told them that they could put it up for the weekend
and if the Board had a problem she would let them know.
Ms. Macdonald told the Board that
she has a meeting with the manager of Walgreen’s on Thursday because the trucks
are continuing to unload on Crane Avenue on the sidewalk and Dave Gromaski has
called the police 5 times. She said that
she talked with Jayson Falcone. Ms. Richards said that Jayson had told her the
last time she talked with him that he was going to copy a letter to the Board
that he sent to them and we never got it.
Ms. Macdonald said she was going to write a letter and when she meets
with Kevin, the manager, she will have something in writing and will send it to
the Board members for review.
Mr. Anderson asked what Attorney
Larry Levine wanted to talk to the Board about at the next meeting. Ms. Macdonald said that he wanted to talk
about the prospect of DeNardo’s moving onto Shaker Road.
The
Board reviewed the ANR for Gates Avenue submitted by Karl & Tina Benware of
200 Gates Avenue for the creation of two lots,
Lot G having 10,000 square feet and Lot F having 10,000 square feet. Lot F is not a building lot and will not be
until Flower Street is improved and water and sewer is brought to the lot, all
as shown on Plan dated July, 2006. Lot G
has proper frontage on a public way, namely Gates Avenue and Lot F, on Flower
Street, as required by the Subdivision Rules and Regulations.
After
discussion and upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted unanimously
(4-0) to approve the ANR.
Minutes
The
Board reviewed the minutes of June 13, 2006 and upon motion duly made and
seconded, voted unanimously (4-0) to accept them with edits.
The
Board reviewed the minutes of July 25, 2006 and upon motion duly made and
seconded, voted unanimously (4-0) to accept them, with edits.
Therefore, with no further business and upon motion duly
made and seconded, the Board voted to close the meeting at 9:45 p.m.
Very
truly yours,
Donald
J. Anderson, Clerk