Minutes of March 20, 2007

 

Present were: Acting Chair Marilyn Richards; Donald Anderson, Clerk; Thomas Morrissette and Michael Przybylowicz.  Louis Calabrese was not present. 

 

Upon motion duly made and seconded the Board voted by roll call to return to regular session – voting:  Marilyn Richards, yes; Donald Anderson, yes; Thomas  Morrissette, yes.  Michael Przybylowicz, yes. 

 

Request for Waiver of Site Plan Review – Diane & Co., Diane Gomes

 

Clerk, Donald Anderson read a request for Waiver of Site Plan Review for Diane & Co. from Diane Gomes.   Ms. Gomes wrote that she received a notice to vacate by December 31, 2006 and has been forced to relocate her business to a new location. Her business is a full service salon providing hair, skin and nail care in a family orientated atmosphere and hours of operation will be Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday 9:00 a.m. –  5:00 p.m., Thursday 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. and Saturday 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.  Her goal would be to use the current Diane & Co. sign on the building face with the addition of half of the existing lighted sign of 37 B Prospect Street.  She would like approval to continue her business at the proposed new location at 37 B Prospect Street.

 

Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted unanimously (4-0) to approve the Request for Waiver of Site Plan with the condition that she will be limited to 1,200 square feet at this location.  Further, this approval is not final until after the expiration of the appeal period of the Special Permit granted on this property.  After April 5, 2007, Ms. Gomes may apply for the proper permits to begin the renovations for her new place of business.  Ms. Richards said with respect to the signage the applicant needs to be informed that they need to submit a formal application for each sign and that the Board will take it up at another time.         

 

Request for Waiver of Site Plan Review and Signage – Forrest Insurance, 603 North Main Street

 

Clerk, Donald Anderson read a request for Waiver of Site Plan Review for Forrest Insurance to locate at 603 North Main Street.  The hours of operations will be 8:30 a.m. –5:00 p.m. and there will be four employees.  Mr. Morrissette abstained from voting due to a previous professional relationship with the applicant and a possible conflict of interest.

Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted unanimously (3-0) to approve the waiver of site plan. 

 

The Board reviewed the signage presented for Forrest Insurance and upon motion duly made and seconded, unanimously (3-0) approve the signage subject to the square footage being verified by the Building Inspector. 

 

Request for Waiver of Site Plan Review – Senior Center, 328 North Main Street  

 

Clerk, Donald Anderson read a request for Waiver of Site Plan Review from Sean Kelley, DPW, Senior Project Manager.  The request is to install a walk-in cooler/freezer at the rear of the existing building at 328 North Main Street.   Ms. Macdonald explained that she walked the property with Bruce Fenney and that the freezer will not protrude any further from the back of the building than the existing steps.

 

Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted unanimously (4-0) to approve the Waiver of Site Plan review with the understanding that no parking spaces will be lost and/or compromised and that the addition of the cooler/freezer will not extend any further back than existing stairs and fencing located at this address. 

 

Public Hearing – Great Woods Phase XI  Definitive Subdivision – Canterbury Circle

 

At 6:30 p.m., Acting Chair, Marilyn Richards opened the Public Hearing and introduced

the Board members.  Clerk, Donald Anderson read the legal notice and correspondence into the record.  The Fire Department wrote in accordance with CMR 780, Section 916.1, Fire Hydrants shall be located and installed as directed by the Fire Department.  The number hydrants must be as shown on plans submitted for review but may be moved to lot line locations at the direction of the water department.  Ms. Macdonald said the only reason for that is no one wants a fire hydrant in the middle of their front yard so if it ends up in the front yard they can move it to the lot line.  The Police Department recommended that street lights be installed to improve the safety of the site for pedestrian and vehicular traffic.  Street illumination also reduces the potential for criminal activity at the site.  Franklin Miorandi, DPW said after a review of the revised plans dated March 7, 2007 he found that all of his concerns where addressed and approves the plans.

 

Attorney Jim Martin present on behalf of the owner Sivad Nominee Trust with the plans submitted by Dan Roulier.  He said that the project is a 19 lot subdivision in Great Woods, Phase XI  that will complete Canterbury Circle and will be the final phase of the Great Woods project.  Attorney Martin said that it has been reviewed by all the administrative departments and approved and will be built consistently with the method of the first 10 phases.        

 

Ms. Richards addressed the Board for any questions.

 

Mr. Przybylowicz asked what is the line that is going through the lots?  Attorney Martin said that is to show the zone change from A to AA. 

 

Ms. Richards addressed the audience for any questions.  There being none and upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted unanimously (4-0) to close the hearing.  With no need for further discussion, and upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted (4-0) to approve the subdivision definitive plan for Phase XI subject to the reports from Police, Fire and DPW.  

 

Attorney Martin said he will work with Ms. Macdonald to provide the appropriate bond prior to the endorsement of the plan.

 

Public Hearing – Mapleshade Elementary School, Modular Units

 

At 7:00 p.m., Acting Chair, Marilyn Richards opened the Public Hearing and introduced

the Board members.  Clerk, Donald Anderson read the legal notice and correspondence into the record.  Police recommended that exterior lighting be installed on the proposed modular to illuminate the rear wall which is the east side of the building and any newly constructed doorways to improve security at the site and to assist officers during site checks during over night hours.  They recommended that the modular units have a second exit to utilize in an event of an emergency at the site.  Franklin Miorandi, DPW said that he didn’t have any concerns in regards to the revised modular addition at Mapleshade School.

 

Dr. Costa said as they mentioned the last time they where in front of the Board that they were contemplating a revision on the Mapleshade project and, as promised, they have brought it back before the Board.  He then introduced John Strandberg, Architect for the project who would explain the revision.

 

Mr. Strandberg presented the revised floor plan of the Mapleshade School and said the original scheme showed 4 classrooms (pointed out the location on the plan) which involved a lot of work with utility, drainage, sewer, etc.  He said after the bids where received they negotiated with the contractor to relocate the addition and get a small credit from the contractor and they went back to their original concept which was to provide the 4 classrooms along the single loaded existing corridor on the other side of the school.  He said as suggested in during the review they did included a second means of egress so that each classroom exits directly onto this main corridor.  He said also a second means of egress out of each end classroom to a door and a new walkway that connects with an existing walkway as been added.  Mr. Strandberg said that it saves quite a bit of site work and they will be connecting into the existing drainage that goes under the existing school and, as suggested, a light will be added at the back of the school with a light by the new exit doors.

 

Ms. Richards asked aside from the relocation of the modulars everything else is the same?  Mr. Standberg said everything is the same and the playground area is not being disturbed or the flow for access.    

 

Dr. Costa said that this was their initial plan and the estimates were too high so they went to the free standing proposal, then once they awarded the bid the contractor said that they could actually save us money by doing the first proposal. 

 

Ms. Richards asked the Board for any questions, there being none addressed the audience for any questions.

 

Heather Eager, 131 Elm Street said that she was concerned with the drainage and wanted to make sure that there wasn’t going to be anymore drainage problems.

Mr. Strandberg said that there should not be because there is a drainage swale in the area and there is a brook that runs under the site which is in a pipe.  He asked her if she has water backing up at that location?  Ms. Eager said they get a lot of surface water in their yard and as do the three houses over from her.

 

Ms. Richards asked if it was safe to say that situation will not change but you won’t be adding to it?  Dr. Costa said he doesn’t think the situation will change and it sounds like some additional drainage work has to be done by the homeowners.

 

With no further discussion and upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted unanimously (4-0) to close the hearing.  Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board unanimously (4-0).                 

 

Request for Waiver of Site Plan Review and Temporary Signage – United Bank, 94 Shaker Road

 

Mr. Anderson abstained from voting due to a possible conflict of interest. 

 

Thomas Morrissette read the request for Waiver of Site Plan Review from United Bank to open a bank branch at 94-96 Shaker Road.  The hours of operations will be Monday through Wednesday 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Thurs – F, 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Sat, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. and will have six employees.  The business summary is for consumer and commercial deposits, loan services, financial planning, sale of insurance products and securities. 

 

Ms. Richards said that the Board actually started to discuss their request for waiver thinking they could move it along but the Board does have some questions.  She asked if they had a floor plan?  Mr. Keavney said yes that they had one.  Ms. Richards said one of the questions that came up was the square footage of the Bank.  Mr. Keavney said that it was 2,411 square feet.  Ms. Richards asked if the ATM machine was shown on the plan?     Mr. Przybylowicz said that would be the drive up ATM and then the other 2 islands will service as the drive up teller.  Mr. Keavney said yes and those were on the site plan.

 

Mr. Morrissette asked if they were three lanes?  Mr. Keavney said yes everything is the same.  Mr. Morrissette said, so everything on the outside footprint is the same as the approved plan?  Mr. Keavney said everything is the same as in the original plan that was submitted and approved.

 

Mr. Przybylowicz asked how many employees will they have?  Mr. Keavney said 6 employees.

 

Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted unanimously (3-0) to approve the Waiver of Site Plan.

 

The applicant then requested a temporary construction sign on the property.  Ms. Richards asked how long will the temporary sign be up?  Mr. Keavney said they are hoping for a very short period of time because they are looking to occupy the building in the fall so he thinks about 6 months to 8 months.

 

The Board reviewed request for signage, and, upon motion duly made and seconded, voted unanimously (3-0) to approve the temporary signage as presented,  measuring 30 square feet to be erected during construction and immediately removed upon completion of the building, as set forth in section 5.826 paragraph b. of the East Longmeadow Zoning By-laws and upon applying and obtaining a building/sign permit from the Building Inspector for the Town. 

 

Mr. Keavney came back into the meeting and said he was looking to change the site plan and the Board told him that he would have to file an amendment to the site plan and he asked what the procedure was.  Mr. Anderson said they would have to send all the changes to all of the people in the round table?  Mr. Morrissette said that they would have to have another hearing to amend the site plan.       

 

Mr. Henshaw asked if there would be any way to expedite the process of the round table given the small amount of change? Ms. Macdonald said as you know she has to get hold of everybody and she is not in control of their schedules.

 

Mr. Morrissette said once their decision is made on what the revisions will be, they need to get the plans to Ms. Macdonald.

 

Mr. Anderson asked Ms. Macdonald if she could put a formal request in the following morning?  Ms. Macdonald said not until she has a plan because the department heads need to see the plan a week before the meeting in order for them to review it and she said what ever their schedules are, she can’t say.

 

Mr. Morrissette said the hearing has to be advertised for 2 weeks and then hold the public hearing. 

 

Ms. Macdonald said that she could do it as fast as she can which she did before but she needs the plan with the applications and she needs to schedule with 5 other departments.

 

Mr. Keavney asked if the round table were scheduled on a per project basis?  Ms. Macdonald said yes.  He asked if they did multiple projects in a day?  Ms. Macdonald said sometimes if she has multiple projects at one time.

 

Ms. Macdonald said now is probably a good time because most everyone is around right now and the sooner she gets the plans in, they could figure about a month.

 

Mr. Henshaw asked so it’s technically an amendment to the site plan which either gets approved or not approved.  He asked if there was anything that prevents them pulling a building permit?

 

Ms. Macdonald said that they can’t pull one on a new plan because they have to give the building inspector their plans showing him what they are doing.  Mr. Henshaw asked if they could show him the plan that they are going to request to have approved?  Ms. Macdonald said no not if it’s not approved by the Planning Board – the building permit would go with the approved plan.

 

Mr. Przybylowicz asked if they gave him the old plan.  Ms. Macdonald said they can’t get a building permit for a plan they are not doing.  Mr. Przybylowicz said a lot of times plans are submitted, he’s not just saying here, he’s saying other communities, other states, where something effects the overall building design and sometimes it’s even on site plan.  He said where they may come across some ledge where they have to alter the building plans and they don’t stop construction they just file an amended plan because the building doesn’t go up to all the sites all in one day.  He said that it takes time to build a building especially if something is as large as this one - they are going to be starting at one corner and by the time get to other corner of the building they could already have amended their plan.

 

Mr. Morrissette said first is that the foundation will be dug.  Mr. Przybylowicz said but they don’t pour it all at once, they pour it in sections.  He said any big box like Wal-Mart or Lowe’s it takes them months to pour foundations that large.

 

Mr. Henshaw said that they altered plans all the time when they are actually building them.  Mr. Keavney asked what if they put the foundation in and Smith goes out there and measures it and the foundation is what it is?

 

Mr. Morrissette said they would be playing with fire but it would be up to them.  Ms. Macdonald said that the plan would have to be changed and the temporary Building Inspector would not give a building permit if their plan is not approved by the planning Board.  She said anyone else that makes a change to a plan has to come before the Board and amend their plans.

 

Mr. Henshaw said that he understands that they are just doing their job but it has been a very long process that he feels that have been pretty patient as they have gone through it.  He said if there is a way, he understands that there is a rule but if you think they are asking he doesn’t think it’s anything that they do not do all of time which is build less than what’s actually is approved, he thinks it’s a problem to build more than what’s approved.  He said but building less than what’s approved and just in the context of almost going on 10 months of permitting, he thinks have actually been hopefully pretty good to deal with and want to continue to have a good relationship with the Board. 

 

He said thinking about that it would take another 2 months.  Ms. Macdonald said no that it’s not 2 months.  He said but they have been through it and that’s how long it took and it’s taken 10 months thus far and he is not being critical of anybody so misunderstand what he is saying but the facts are the facts.  He said that they started in May or June and now it’s March - he is not being critical but he is just saying that it has been a cumbersome process.

 

Mr. Morrissette said that the Board understands his point that it’s a couple hundred square feet and you’re making it smaller, the Board understands all of that but the Board’s responsibility is to do what the Town of East Longmeadow ‘s by-laws say what they have to do.  He said the Board can’t make exceptions to that even though we would love to. 

 

Mr. Henshaw said that he doesn’t think they would have a problem coming back and amending the plan.  Mr. Morrissette said that he understood that they are frustrated with the length of time and the process.

 

Mr. Henshaw said they would be happy to go through the process of amending the plan – it is very cumbersome to them saying that we can’t do anything until we amend the plan, that becomes very cumbersome to them.

 

Mr. Morrissette said that was just like the people who are trying to get out of the property they have now, the hairdresser.  He said that she could not go into the new place that she wanted go into and start putting in her sinks and everything else until the 20 day appeal period and the site plan for the building itself is approved.  He said so they share the same problem so he doesn’t know how they could say yes to them and no to her.

 

Mr. Henshaw said so they do have an approved plan?  Mr. Morrissette said yes they do and if they want to build that plan you go ahead and build it.  Mr. Henshaw said if they say they were willing to build this plan they want to proceed with the plan,  worst case scenario they’ll build the plan if they can’t have an approved amended plan, is that anything that’s going to cause a problem?

 

Ms. Richards asked if he was fearful that the Board won’t approve it?  Mr. Henshaw  said that he wasn’t at all fearful that the Board isn’t’ going to approve but what he is trying to say is to sit there at a steady stage, lets say for another 6 weeks, to go through the process again for something that he would guess that most people would say that it’s a no brainer we don’t need to spend a lot of time talking about chopping the back off the building.  He said that does become a cumbersome process to them and he thinks if they said that they have a building plan now that we are willing to build we’d like to pull a building permit based on this plan, concurrently they’d like to come back and say they want to amend the plan.  He said that they do that at their own risk, if we can’t get it approved we won’t build this, in the mean time while we’re doing this - we want to come back and amend it.  He asked if that seemed like anything that would cause any trouble?

 

Mr. Anderson said if you pull a permit on the original plan it still has to be signed for an occupancy permit and if you build anything off of that it you’re doing at your own risk and as long as you understand that you won’t get your occupancy permit until that particular plan is done, until pending approval if you build anything short of that.

 

Mr. Morrissette said he would be surprised if he goes out to the site and he’s looking at your foundation to approve it and he sees that it’s not the same plan, maybe he will maybe we won’t, maybe he won’t even notice it because it’s such a small change.

 

Mr. Henshaw said that they don’t have a problem with him noticing it but in the mean time if we say that we are going to proceed with this plan subject to knowing that we are coming back for an amendment, if we can’t get an amendment approved then we will build this plan and come back for an amendment - hopefully we can get back in front of you fairly soon.  Mr. Anderson said as long as you know you are rolling the dice on it but you won’t get your permit until that plan is shown as-built to the plan.  Mr. Henshaw said that it’s been a long process for them and he doesn’t want to sound like he is complaining about that he just saying the facts are the facts it has been sort of a long process and he is not blaming anybody for that and he thinks they’ve all been great to work with and Ms. Macdonald has been definitely good to work with but just in the  interest of trying to move it along we may try to do a dual track thing that hopefully works well for  everybody.                               

 

Public Hearing Zoning By-law Amendment – Accessory structures                 

 

At 7:30 p.m. Acting Chair, Marilyn Richards opened the hearing.  Clerk, Mr. Anderson read the legal notice.

 

Acting Chair, Ms. Richards addressed the Board for any questions and said there was some concern that we might want to clarify the language and in our by-law to basically reflect how the by-law has been interpreted.  She said that there was an original addition to the by-law which said that any accessory building shall not be used for residence purposes except by a person employed on the premises and his immediate family and if only located in the rear of the principal building and with no immediate street frontage.  She said that has been part of the by-law for a long long time and it’s her understanding that the intent of the by-law language was to address agricultural uses in where there were people that resided on the premises as they worked the property and that doesn’t apply anymore.  She asked the Board if they had any questions or concerns about this?         

 

Mr. Przybylowicz said that it’s fairly clear and he think that the by-law is outdated and needs to be revised to reflect the current times and uses.

 

Mr. Morrissette said that they are talking about a separate accessory building not a anything that’s attached to the house that could be considered an in-law apartment?  He said that they weren’t dealing with that they are not getting into any of that whether it’s legal or not, we are just talking about a separate building.

 

Ms. Macdonald said people are building garages and then building apartments over the garages.  Mr. Morrissette asked if they are detached or detached?  Ms. Macdonald said that they were detached in the back yard so they created two residences on one property.

 

Ms. Richards said that she also understands that there was some form of confusion as to what it meant being a person employed on the premises.  She said that her response was that the town would require a W-2 form or a 1099 that identifies that this person is duly employed as some sort of caretaker of the premises, whose income was reported to the IRS, but there was potential for abuse or a different interpretation of the by-law and she thinks that this will clarify that.

 

Mr. Anderson asked what if somebody has a garage or barn and uses it for residential but not for sleeping purposes.  He said for instance a recreation room or a shop where there’s a heating system in there, where there’s things of that nature?  Mr. Morrissette said that they can even have a kitchen for a party room or something like that. 

 

Ms. Richards said that it was the sleeping part.  Mr. Anderson said so the key is sleeping quarters and asked if they had a definition of residence?  Ms. Richards said no but when in doubt and she didn’t have a dictionary in front of her but common sense would tell them they have single family dwelling that are allowed in residence districts, that’s all.  She said they might be able to get some help with Webster’s dictionary with regard to the definition of residence.  She said to her residence purposes mean you are living there, you are sleeping there, you are conducting all of your business there.  She said to have a hobby room over the garage doesn’t qualify, having a bathroom over the garage doesn’t qualify.  Mr. Anderson added a bar or game room.  Ms. Macdonald said as long as you don’t reside there.

 

Ms. Richards asked the audience for questions.

 

Phil Abair, Fifth Street said just for discussion he said you talked about a residence above a garage.  Mr. Anderson said a detached garage.  Mr. Abair said in today’s world you get a lot of teenagers that are growing up and if you have upstairs in garage it’s not unusual for them to have a room that might be separate from the house like above the garage they might want sleep up there.   He said so think about that when you make this by-law.

 

Mr. Anderson said so are you saying if you just had a bedroom not a kitchen.  Ms. Macdonald said no.  Mr. Anderson said he could see his point.  Ms. Macdonald said that  the Fire Department would have a problem with that because if there was a fire they would not know if someone was sleeping there.  Ms. Richards said that it’s not a separate apartment, it’s not a separate residential dwelling and the by-laws do not promote or encourage or authorize two residential dwellings on the same parcel. 

 

Mr. Abair said that the Board should take into consideration a family who has kids that have separate rooms that are available to them and there are going to sleep out there or reside out there.  He said that they may not have a kitchen and all that but if you have a strict rule says they can’t reside in there because it’s an open space, the have to reside in the main house then you may have a problem.

 

Ms. Richards said that the issue was that the law already reflects that, there’re not allowed to do that now.  She said the only reason why they are clarifying the language us that in prior years when agricultural uses were flourishing in our community there were actually farm workers that lived on premises and the town was sensitive to that.  She said that no longer exists.

 

Mr. Abair said if you are making a rule that pertains to outside members of the family then he would say yes, but all he is saying if they make the rules so strict even family members can use the space to reside in that’s a different story.

 

Ms. Richards said that residing is residing and single family dwellings is all that is permitted on a residential parcel.  Mr. Morrissette said maybe that should be added that this by-law means that only one  residence per lot. 

 

Attorney Donahue said it was his understanding the way this issue may have to come to the Board because a son and daughter-in-law were taking care of the son’s parents and because of that they petitioned the Building Inspector for a permit to erect a second building saying that they were employee’s of the parents.  He said that the Building Inspector wrestled with that before he left for Africa and his decision was in order for that section of the by-law to apply the person actually had to be an employee of the primary occupant of the property.  He said that suggested three or four years of tax returns showing payment by one to other and that it be reported to the IRS.  He said the issue that he was a talking about - a residence if you get into whether bedroom facilities are residence or toilets or kitchen facilities your going to get into a nightmare of enforcement.

 

Attorney Donahue continued to say that if the Board says a person can have a kitchen but you can’t have a bedroom, so you put a cot up there that folds up - the building inspector is never going to be able to prove that it’s not being used for residential purposes.  Attorney Donahue said if the by-law states clearly that accessory structures shall not be used for residential purposes and then define residential purposes as sleeping, eating or how ever you want to define it, then he thinks they clarified the issue if that is where they are looking to go.      

 

Ms. Richards said that the current by-law wasn’t being changed from the stand point that an accessory building shall not be used for residence purposes, it’s already there.  She said that they were changing the exception that they allow an accessory building to be used for residence purposes if those individuals and his family are duly employed on the premises, whatever their responsibilities are and that component of the by-law as she said, stemmed from agricultural uses years back.  Further, if you have grandparents living in the accessory structure because they are going to baby sit the grandchildren that to her doesn’t satisfy the person employed on the premises in his immediate family.  She said that was what they are trying to eliminate.           

 

Mr. Anderson said basically what we are saying “reside” is the same as living in.   

 

Attorney Donahue said what you are saying is that you have an interpretation that the building inspector’s over the years have applied to this situation, you are taking away the exception so whatever was done in the past in that interpretation or how the building inspector interprets resides or residence in the future.  Mr. Anderson said so it’s still going to be left to the building inspector.  Attorney Donahue said that they might want to say an accessory building shall not be used as a residence.

 

Ms. Richards asked Ms. Macdonald if the Selectmen have gone to printing for the warrant?  Ms. Macdonald said that she didn’t know yet.   Ms. Richards said because if the Board is supportive of this and since it is the Planning Board’s article, she doesn’t know if they would still have to as printed currently or can they change it now.  Ms. Macdonald said that they could amend it on the floor if it has already gone to print.  Ms. Richards said that she was trying to avoid that if they don’t have to.  Ms. Macdonald said that she could call Nick and ask him and then she asked Attorney Donahue if he reviewed all of the warrant articles? He said no.  Ms. Macdonald said then the answer is no, it has not gone to print because Attorney Donahue reviews the articles first.   Attorney Donahue said no they were pushed backwards because of the change in town leadership.  Ms. Macdonald said then she could make the change tomorrow. 

 

Upon motion duly made and seconded the Board voted unanimously, (4-0)  to close the hearing.  Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board unanimously (4-0) to recommend the article as revised based on the comments at the public hearing.   

 

Public Hearing Zoning By-law Amendment – New Zoning Map                

 

At 7:45 p.m. Acting Chair, Marilyn Richards opened the hearing.  Clerk, Mr. Anderson read the legal notice.

 

Acting Chair, Ms. Richards said that the by-law requires the town to bring back to the town meeting any zoning changes to the zoning map after the zone changes have been approved at a prior town meeting.  She said that that particular map references one change  to a parcel on Maple Street that had been a multiple zoned parcel zoned industrial and residential and after lengthy discussion after the last town meeting it was approved by the town 2/3 majority to change the zone to a commercial zone,  She said so this map is reflection that zone change and was approved by the Attorney General’s Office.

 

Ms. Richards addressed the Board for any questions, being none addressed the audience for any questions.

 

Mr. Abair said his main purpose was to find out what was the purpose and to what lot it was pertaining to.

 

Ms. Richards asked the Board for any other questions, being none and upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board unanimously voted (4-0) to close the hearing.  Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board unanimously (4-0) to approve the article for the zoning map along with map. 

 

Miscellaneous

 

Ms. Richards said that Ms. Macdonald sent a resolution regarding a proposed Aero Space Metal Business interested in the industrial garden park with a question of use, question of impact, etc. and the question of the Board’s capability of signing a resolution and she personally had some problems with it and some concerns.  She said that Attorney Donahue also had some concerns.  

 

Attorney Donahue said there were a couple problems with it - first of all it represents that the Board has the authority to make a determination as to whether the use of the property is going to comply with the zoning by-laws.  He said that was not accurate - that the interpreter of the by-laws is your building inspector, as the enforcer, to determine whether he feels it’s a violation or not.  He said secondly, he questions why is this petition coming to the Board if it’s not going to be an outdoor facility used for metal parts?  Why else come to the Board ?  He said unless you specifically know what it is they are going to there and how it’s going to be operated, that’s a tough document to sign.                   

 

At this time, the Board, by roll call, voted to go into Executive Session for purposes of litigation strategy –going back into regular session.

 

Marilyn Richards – yes

Donald Anderson – yes

Michael Przybylowicz – yes

Thomas Morrissette – yes


At this time, the Board, by roll call, returned to regular session

 

Discussion regarding unregistered motor vehicles

 

Ms. Richards informed Mr. Przybylowicz the meeting that he missed there was someone from the public petitioned article to change the by-law for unregistered motor vehicles to require current mass registration, inspection stickers.  She has asked if the Board would please consider supporting it - we heard the presentation but have not made a decision whether we vote not to support, vote to support as written or vote to support with some amended language. 

 

Ms. Richards continued by stating that she thinks at their next meeting when Mr. Calabrese is back -if we really feel that it’s an area we really want to get into – if we think there’s a need to modify the language - then maybe we should consider possibly changing the language, making an amendment on the town meeting floor.  Mr. Morrissette said that he felt strongly the way it was written was not good but he does think that the Board should support some form of that but it needs to be amended because it was too restrictive.  Mr. Przybylowicz asked how restrictive was it?

 

Ms. Richards said she explained to a person who approached her about the article that the Board is going to support an article that’s in the best interest of the whole town.  She said that the Board would not focus in on this one isolated case, although we are sensitive to it and we certainly agreed that there is an issue but what is that issue, is it really enforcement?  She said that the article that she proposed was to amend the zoning by-laws, Section 3.308 Unregistered Vehicles by deleting quote “or other wise out of sight of all abutters and public ways” and adding the following “any unregistered motor vehicle must be able to pass Massachusetts State Inspection motor vehicles with broken windows, flat tires, etc. shall not be permitted on premises for no more than 30 days.  Tractor trailer beds shall not be permitted as storage at anytime insight or out of sight on residential properties.

 

Mr. Anderson asked how could an unregistered vehicle pass inspection, don’t you have to show a registration?  Mr. Morrissette sad that it would have to be a registered vehicle to go to inspection.  Mr. Anderson said so isn’t that like a contradiction if somebody wants a unregistered vehicle they have to register to keep it an unregistered vehicle?                        

 

Mr. Morrissette said that she is saying that it has to, at least, be acceptable and capable of being an inspected vehicle.  He said there are too many people in town who have cars they are restoring and there are so many different ways you could have a unregistered car in your yard.  He thought the rule now was you could have one unregistered car outdoors, you can have as many as you want in your garage and this didn’t even allow for the in garage thing.

 

Ms. Richards asked the Board what they wanted to do with it?  She said that Ms. Macdonald e-mailed the Board three options, four pages.  She thinks that it goes without saying that the Board owes this woman at least some discussion which we are and if we can’t come to some kind of an agreement then she can go at her own and probably not succeed but she would like to see the Board try to maybe come up with some language.

 

Mr. Anderson asked if it was proper to invite her in and have a general discussion.  Ms. Richards said that the Board did talk about letting her know what we were doing and she doesn’t think that it would be improper she thinks if they have a scheduled time to talk about it, as long as we are prepared.  Ms. Macdonald suggested that perhaps the  Board would like to determine what they want to say and before town meeting we can have her come to one of the meetings and inform her of your decision?  Mr. Morrissette said that he would like to give her at least the opportunity to discuss their thoughts together.

 

Ms. Macdonald asked if they would like to it on their first meeting in May?  The Board agreed to have her come in on May 1st meeting.          

        

Therefore, with no further business and upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted to close the meeting at 9:40 p.m.

 

                                                                        Very truly yours,

 

 

 

                                                                        Donald J. Anderson, Clerk