Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutmin of planning brd 09102008 Planning Board Minutes S b 10 2008 '''F''''''''-O eptem er , it:,\-,Cl', I: _ Present: H. Thomas French, Chair; Beth Ashman-Collins, Clerk; Doug ADriin~iNi~~~IF ICE M~C::lanahan, Do~ald Cleary 71'1', on _' P 3: l~ 8 OhvIer KozlowskI and Shawn MacDonald, Alternates LtJ"U "V I q , Shaun P. Burke, Director of Planning and Development 11. Meeting caOed to order at 7:30 p.a ;"'-'i:"',~Q',.:_,, ""'$11 . ,__, ,- ~',"- -"'!,. r... .. f- ! 1 "; 12.ColTespolld~llce 1. August 6, 2008 minutes Motion: To approve as submitted (McClanahan-Annino) All in favor. PASSES 2. ZBA decisions - 8 South White Pine Lane (granted/no recc); 10 Brookside Drive (granted/negative rec); 1775 West Street (granted/positive recc); 200 Gilbert Street (Decision of the Building Inspector upheld) 3. August Building Permit Summary 4. Meeting notices Easton, North Attleboro, Attleboro, Norton, Sharon, JTPG 5. Conference notice - "Keeping Current with Chapter 40B" 6. Notice of "Taunton River Watershed Conservation & Nature Series" 7. The Beacon Motion: To appoint Mr. Cleary and Ms. Collins to the TIF committee (McClanahan-Annino) All in favor. PASSES I 3. Form A (ANR) Plans 1.'.4... DiscussiOllwith.I<eIlBechti....M.lI.fiela.M...ketplace....Sctaool..Street Mr. Hecht explained the project has been delayed because of an archaeological dig required by Mass Highway. He said there will be a final repot within 12 months; Mr. French asked if this would delay the project another year. Mr. Hecht said the dig will take about two weeks, and he hopes to begin work in the middle of October. Mr. Hecht said they have revised the plans because of the downturn in the economy. Bill Greelish, Carter Burgess, explained the changes. The first is the depth of the towers; they are proposing to build them 24x12, rather than completely square. He said the towers will only be seen from the front and sides, not from the back. Mr. Annino said that would look fake and the tower should be fully built. Mr. Annino suggested lowering the height at the tower to save some money. Mr. Hecht said that is a good compromise. Mr. Annino suggested the gable could be eliminated, as well. Mr. Annino said the tenants should be encouraged to install awnings. Mr. French said that is part of the special permit so awnings must be installed. Planning Board 1 10/9/2008 '" Ms. Collins asked if the buildings have gotten larger; Mr. Greelish said they have not. The storefronts will be the same as originally approved. Mr. Hecht said he would like to get the steel and blocks up before winter, so he would like to get consensus on the changes from the board. Mr. Greelish said they want to match the colors to the shopping center across the street. After approval, Mansfield Crossing changed their colors, so they will want to change theirs to match. Mr. Greelish said they would like to reduce the height of the stone on the piers to be consistent across the front of the buildings. Mr. Annino suggested keeping it high on the two ends. Mr. Greelish said they would like to reduce the number of accent lights on the building; the parking lot and security lighting will not change. Mr. McClanahan suggested some LED lighting. Mr. Greelish said they would like a steeper mansard roof for more depth, like the Sports Authority roof. Mr. Annino said that would look fake. Ms. Collins said she doesn't like that either. Mr. Hecht said that is a big money item for them. Mr. Annino said the board is concerned about how the building will look from the street, and said that type of roof would look fake from the street. Mr. Greelish said they would like to do mansard roofs at the rear of the buildings; the roofs would wrap partly around the back of each building. Consensus was that would only be seen from the railroad tracks and would be acceptable. Mr. Greelish said they would like to eliminate the clock on the smaller building and replace it with a round louvered window. Mr. Annino said he wouldn't do a louver, but rather a circular lit window. Mr. Hecht agreed. Mr. Hecht said some of the tenants may not want canopies. He said they have Chipotle Grill with outdoor seating, and a possibly two other restaurant tenants. He said restaurants like to have canopies, but smaller retailers may not. They also have Sleepy's, Five Guys burgers, AT&T, Quizno's, Omni Fitness equipment, with a few empty spaces. Mr. French said he likes the clock feature and asked if a window would save that much money. Mr. Hecht said he would be willing to install the clock. Mr. Annino said the size of the clock could be decreased, but it would still have to be visible from School Street. Mr. Greelish said the roofing material would be architectural asphalt shingles rather than metal. Mr. Greelish said they would submit the revised plans to Mr. Burke. Planning Board 2 10/9/2008 '!W Consensus was as follows on the changes: The tower depths that frame onto the roof will not be reduced, but the board suggested reducing the tower height by approximately four feet. The board agreed the center tower originally approved on the larger building may be eliminated. Color schemes will be changed to match the shopping center across the street. The stone accent height at the tower elements will remain as originally approved on the October 15,2007 plans by Carter Burgess. Building accent lighting may be reduced. Parking lot lighting and decorative lighting on the sidewalk will not be changed. The clock will not be eliminated, but in light of the reduction of the tower height, the board suggested a smaller clock face size. The mansard roof construction at the rear of the buildings only, with the roof still wrapping the corners of the building, will be allowed. The mansard roof construction to match the steep roof pitch design utilized on buildings in the center across the street will not be allowed and the construction of the mansard roof as originally approved will be required. The roofing materials may be changed from metal to asphalt architectural shingles, provided, however, that a variety of shingle colors are used to break up the roofline. Mr. French said he thinks the board can vote on the changes as a minor modification after the new elevations are submitted. The clerk read a request to continue the public hearing. Motion: To continue the public hearing to October 22, 2008 at 8:30 p.m. (McClanahan-Cleary) All in favor. PASSES Mr. Burke distributed the final copy of the Master Plan. Mr. Burke reminded the board they are presenting the plan to the Board of Selectmen on September 24 at 7 :00 p.m. Mr. Burke explained he attended a meeting about South Coast Rail on Monday. The town will be asked to identify Priority Protection Areas, with a staff-level meeting scheduled for Tuesday September 16 10:00 am. Mr. Burke outlined the major issues that arose during the Master Plan discussions. 1. Economic Development Issues Planning Board 3 10/9/2008 a. Continue to focus on business retention and attraction efforts at Mansfield's business parks b. Revitalization and business retention downtown c. Commuter rail station 2. "Green" Mansfield a. Reduce carbon footprint of municipal operations b. Protect the night skies c. Allow small wind turbines and other alternate energy sources d. Low-impact development regulations Mr. Burke said there are two businesses in the business park that are planning to file TIF applications within the next few months. Mr. Burke explained there are unresolved issues of access to the commuter rail station, and without a resolution to that, increasing density and attracting new uses might not be advisable. He said at the meeting on Monday, they discussed a downtown traffic study using municipal assistance money through SRPEDD. Mr. Burke said the Master Plan committee had discussed making the design guidelines more formal through Zoning By-Law amendments. Ms. Collins asked who would take the lead on the train station issue; Mr. Burke said that would come from the Board of Selectmen, but would come through the Planning Board. He said the zoning changes would come from the Planning Board and go to Town Meeting. Mr. Burke said there are issues with access to the train station and the CSX land, and a possible land taking, which was discussed at the Monday meeting. He said the town would have to push for that, but said it would be better for the federal government to do that than the town. He said Congressman Frank has been very helpful on the town's projects in the past. Mr. Annino said he would like downtown to be first on the priority list, rather the business parks. Mr. French said the board has done a lot already in terms of zoning to make businesses welcome and to make permitting as easy as possible. Mr. Annino asked to reword the agenda topics prior to the Selectmen's meeting: "development of a successful and highly recognizable town center"; "integration of the mass transit system with the town's economic growth and success." Mr. Burke said in the past, SRPEDD has looked at the economic impact of the train station on Mansfield; residents work in the city and bring their money back to Mansfield to spend. Mr. French said he thinks the train station is a real selling point for real estate in town. He said one of the ideas of the Master Plan process is to try to create more of a front door for downtown Mansfield from the train station, and what can be done to try to Planning Board 4 10/9/2008 ,.. improve that. Ms. Collins asked about using some of Kevin Hively's slides during the presentation to the Board of Selectmen. Mr. Burke said a lot of the "Green Mansfield" topics are Board of Selectmen policy issues. He said the Planning Board has two members on the Capital Improvements Committee, so the board will have a role in the review of equipment acquisition or additions or new construction. He said the proposed new fire station/DPW building should be a "green" building. Mr. Annino said the town should be leading by example and should encourage industry to build green. Mr. MacDonald said the City of Boston mandates buildings over a certain size have to be LEED certified and asked how the town could do that with municipal buildings. Mr. Burke said the Board of Selectmen and School Committee would have to take the lead on that. Mr. Annino said the more that type of development is discussed, the more the builders think about doing it. Mr. Annino asked to change the wording to "encourage the development of well-defined municipal guidelines for the reduction of energy use and the conservation of our natural resources. " Mr. Burke said the board has discussed the issue of night skies during both the Master Plan and several public hearings, and discussed establishing lighting standards. He said rather than accepting the manufacturer's standard plans, the town could establish its own acceptable standards. Mr. French said he thinks the board could propose a by-law for things like footcandle standards and timelines. Ms. Collins asked if Mr. Burke could get some examples of other town's by-laws for lighting and wind turbines. She said she wouldn't want the by-laws to prevent new technology the town didn't think about years ago. Mr. Burke said there is a lot of opposition to this technology because of issues with things like their impact on birds and bats, the possibility of them falling and the minimum size of the lot they could be built on. He said this area doesn't get enough wind to make a turbine viable. He said right now, he doesn't think a building permit would be granted for a wind turbine; however, he said technologies could be combined. Mr. Burke said when the board's meeting will only be 30 minutes in two weeks, and should be an introduction of the Master Plan, the process, why it is different than previous plans, and broad concepts. Mr. Burke said low-impact development regulations were discussed during the Master Plan and during the Toyota site plan review. He said eliminating some of the drainage structures like catch basins and replacing them with more natural features like swales and rain gardens will save money in the long run. He said the board could adopt regulations in the Subdivision Regulations and in the Zoning By-Law. Ms. Collins said the low- impact development issue should be moved up to the top of the list. Planning Board 5 9/25/2008 '" Ms. Collins said the Master Plan committee also discussed safe routes for walkers and bicyclers. Mr. Burke said the primary responsibility for that will be the Board of Selectmen as Road Commissioners. Ms. Collins asked if that could be part of the "green" movement; Mr. Burke said it would, as it would encourage less car travel and more pedestrian travel. However, he said the policy would have to come from the Board of Selectmen. Mr. French asked Mr. Burke to prepare an outline with key points for the meeting with the Selectmen. Motion: To adjourn at 9:45 p.m. (McClanahan-Collins) All in favor. PASSES Next meeting: Wednesday, September 24,2008 at 7:30 p.m. bi~k (}d Signature of Clerk Ort OJ~ Date of Approval Planning Board 6 9/25/2008 ,-