HomeMy WebLinkAboutPLANNINGbrd_01292014 Planning Board Minutes
January 29,2014 ;'E CE,1 V ED
Present: Tom French, Chair; Beth Ashman-Collins, Clerk; MXk ahaP,FActSleary,
Ralph Penney, Cheryl Collins, Rich LeBlanc; Alternates Rod Oreste and Mls�e e �
Shaun P. Burke, Director of Planning and Development; Jenni Csttlba'vis, Administrative
Secretary
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1. January 15, 2014 Minutes
p. 2 - 77-79 West Street ZBA application—add"keep doors closed to decrease noise to the
neighbors."
Motion: To approve as amended
(Feck-Collins) Seven in favor. McClanahan, Oreste abstained. PASSES
2. Public Hearing notices Easton,Norton, Sharon
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Russell Barnaby and Bob Palmier showed the board a short film about the history of the
chocolate factory and their ideas to redevelop the property, which includes residential, office,
light industrial, restaurant and retail space.
Mr. Barnaby said they have made an offer to ADM to purchase the property. He said he would
like the opportunity to come back to the board to discuss the property's impacts on things like
schools,public safety and traffic.
Mr. Barnaby said they are proposing a market-rate development, except what the town requires
for affordable residential units.
Mr. Barnaby said their offer to ADM is for the assessed value of the property,$2.126 million.
He said he does not believe the highest and best use would be single-user industrial and said a
mixed-use redevelopment would require a zoning change. Mr. Barnaby explained the estimate
for approximately $24-25 million in hard construction costs. He said the redevelopment would
create 200 temporary construction jobs and permanent jobs in the retail and industrial uses. Mr.
Barnaby said the total cost of the redevelopment would be around$38 million, with$350
400,000 in tax revenue for the town, excluding residents' excise taxes.
Mr. Barnaby said he understands there are concerns about parking at the commuter rail station
and said they are considering a shuttle to the station to mitigate impact.
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Mr. Barnaby said the residential would be 80%market-rate units with the town's required
percentage of affordable units, along with office space,restaurant and low-impact industrial use
such as a brewery or recreational facility.
Mr. French asked about the amount of each use. Mr. Barnaby said the lending program they are
using is a mortgage backed guarantee through a private lender. The lender has visited the site,
and they have preliminary approval for a$22 million loan. Mr. Barnaby said approximately
80%, or 120-130,of the units will be market rate with one-bedroom, two-bedroom-one bath, and
possibly some studios. He said he doesn't know the amount of retail at this time,but said he
thinks the front building could be used as a commercial building and they could use the stone
building for retail. He said the site would have approximately 20-25% commercial overall. He
said he would like to create jobs with a low-impact industrial use. Mr. Barnaby said they plan to
keep the steel building,which ADM used for storage.
Mr. Barnaby said the site is zoned industrial and has 14.2 acres of land. He said there may be a
second phase in three or four years, which could serve the town with something like a
recreational facility. Mr. Penney suggested a Council on Aging.
Mr. Barnaby said one of the reasons ADM moved out is because the building is obsolete for
manufacturing. He said historic tax credits would be approximately$12 million,but requires
apartments, and the renovations have to be approved by the National Park Service.
Mr. Barnaby said with the allowed height at the Cabot Business Park increasing to 90 feet,there
will likely be transition from warehouse to office use and different jobs. Mr. French said the
(Th town sees the park progressing from warehousing to office use.
Mr.Barnaby said he has heard Tighe Trucking is thinking of relocating, and he understands
Oakland Street, a two-lane road,would make trucking difficult. However,he said he thinks
professional office uses would make sense there. Mr. Barnaby said he would like to produce as
many job-producing tenants as possible.
Ms. Ashman-Collins asked if there would be some live-work space; Mr.Barnaby said that might
be possible. Mr. Burke said the draft TOD by-law includes live-work space.
Ms. Collins asked about the timeframe for the project. Mr. Barnaby said once ADM accepts
their offer,they would put down a deposit and go to purchase and sales 60 days later. They
would need 9-12 months to close on the loan and do pre-development work, which would
include working with the town. Construction would take 12-14 months.
Mr. French said a zoning change would require 2/3 vote of Town Meeting. Mr. Penney said it is
refreshing to talk to a developer who is so open about his plans; he said his priority has been to
create jobs and he appreciates that Mr. Barnaby mentioned job creation several times. Mr.
Barnaby said he thinks this project would be,a partnership between the developer and the town.
Mr. Penney said the old bleachery building on the Mansfield/Foxboro line has been redeveloped
as several small businesses.
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Adaptive Reuse of Historic Structures—Mr. Burke explained the draft has been revised to
include"non-residential"buildings built before the adoption of zoning in 1953. He noted the
draft includes a building size of 20,000 square feet and a lot size of one acre and asked the board
to think about what the appropriate sizes for the building and lot might be. The existing Older
Building Reuse only requires a 2,000 square foot building built before 1953. Mr. Burke
presented a list of buildings that could potentially be redeveloped under the by-law. He noted a
number of older buildings have already been redeveloped, such as Millhaus and the Grain Mill.
Mr. Burke noted that during the Strategic Planning process, Dr. Mullin used churches as
examples of buildings likely to be changing because congregations are getting older and smaller.
He said he recently met with the pastor from Methodist Church, which is looking into selling the
existing church on North Main Street and relocating to a new facility on Branch Street.
Mr. Penney said the by-law intends to maintain the town's cultural,architectural and historic
significance, and suggested adding requirements to help maintain the building facades.
Mr. McClanahan said a building like the Richardson Manufacturing on Otis.Street likely
couldn't be reused;Mr.Penney said the nice feature of that site is the dam.
Mr. LeBlanc asked if the building's character should be included in the by-law; Mr. Burke said
that could be added. Mr.French said that would be a subjective standard. Mr.Burke said the
more detailed the by-law is,the more difficult it would be to comply with.
B3/B4,or Copeland-Chauncy Overlay District—Mr. Burke said an overlay district is difficult
to explain to Town Meeting. Ms. Collins said the B4 changes would be important to help protect
the businesses in the outlying districts. Mr.Burke said there would be a significant impact on
the abutters to the existing B3 zone. He said he understands the area is a place to grow business,
but those businesses are abutted by residential uses. Mr. Penney said the Copeland-Chauncy
corridor is becoming a second downtown. Mr. Burke disagreed and said while we should help
the businesses in that area,the consequences to the residential abutters would be significant. Mr.
French said he thinks Town Meeting was concerned about buffering the residential areas from
the business uses. Mr. Burke said the draft by-law proposes a 30-foot front yard setback rather
than 50 feet to encourage buildings to be closer to the street and a 40-foot rear yard setback.
Mr. Burke said he has spoken with representatives from Wendy's, who want to remove and
replace the building on Copeland Drive. He said he has not seen a plan yet.
Mr. Burke noted he has changed the parking requirement in the draft to reflect the parking and
FAR changes adopted at 2013 Annual Town Meeting. Mr. French noted the 2013 article did not
change the setbacks.
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Mr. Penney said he thinks everyone agrees the outlying businesses should be classified
differently than the Copeland-Chauncy corridor. He suggested leaving those parcels as B3 and
calling the Copeland-Chauncy corridor B4. Mr. Penney said changing the front setback
wouldn't require a building to be that close to the street, it could be set further back on the lot.
Mr. French asked about the possibility of increasing the buffer strip at the rear of the building.
Mr. Burke said it is currently 15 feet. Mr. French said increasing it would provide additional
buffering for the neighbors. Mr. Burke suggested changing the density and height of the planting
materials rather than increasing the depth of the buffer.
Mr. LeBlanc asked about a smaller zoning district that wouldn't abut the residential areas. Mr.
Penney said that would be similar to what is done in the business park, where the allowed heights
are stepped back. Mr. Cleary suggested rezoning the lots used as residential, which are currently
zoned industrial,back to residential. Mr. Burke said there are more properties abutting this zone
than are in the zone.
Mr. Penney said increasing the density and height of the planting materials would help with the
visual barrier as well as noise. Mr. Burke said that would only apply to new businesses,so it
might help with new development and redevelopment.
Mr. Penney asked about drive-throughs in the new zone. The board discussed existing
businesses with drive-throughs. Mr. French said a drive-through for a restaurant is different than
a restaurant for a bank or pharmacy. Mr. Burke agreed. Mr. French said the restaurant industry
has changed, and new fast food restaurants have smaller buildings and more room for drive-
throughs. The board discussed whether restaurants like Panera Bread or Starbucks are fast food.
Mr.Burke said he believes they are fast food because they serve rapidly prepared or pre-prepared
food, and said he believes the courts would agree. Mr. French said the building inspector would
be the one to determine what is and is not fast food. Mr. French asked if the drive through is
what determines fast food; Mr. Burke said he thinks it is. He said a lot of donut and pizza shops
were allowed to be built where they are because those businesses used to make food on site and
therefore were not selling"pre-prepared"food. Mr. French said he doesn't agree that a drive-
through is the only factor that makes a use fast food.
Medical Marijuana-Mr. Burke said the draft is similar to the existing Adult Entertainment by-
law. Mr.French asked if there is a substantial area left after backing out,the setbacks; Mr.Burke
said there is. Mr. Oreste asked if the town is required to provide a place to allow things like
Adult Entertainment and Medical Marijuana. Mr. Burke said a town cannot zone those things
out,but can reasonably restrict them. Mr. Cleary asked if people could grow marijuana; Mr.
Burke said the law allows people to grow it for personal use if they meet certain criteria,
including security. He said he doesn't know of a license for farming marijuana.
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Architectural Projections into Setback—Mr.French asked about the secondary or emergency
access projecting into the setback. Mr. Burke said that is intended to accommodate a set of stairs
�, and a landing:
Airport Changes-Mr. Burke said this is only for the airport property. Ms.Ashman-Collins
asked if the board should consider zoning for uses if the airport is not there. Mr. Burke said the
airport has to be there; there in a reverter clause with the federal government. Mr. Cleary
suggested the reference should be "A"instead of "*"to refer to uses in the Airport Master Plan.
W.:
Ms. Collins said she was excited about something happening at the Chocolate Factory.
Mr. Burke said Dr.Dulaski's Northeastern students are going to start several different downtown
streetscape projects, including on North Main Street and on Route 106 from Highland Ave to
Route 140. Mr. Burke said he and SPREDD have provided the students with a number of
documents. Mr. French asked about the plan for the roundabout on North Main/Oakland Street;
Mr. Burke said that is still being discussed. He said BETA is aware of the discussions.
Mr. Burke said he has spoken with BETA several times, and he thinks they are on track. He said
they have met with several property owners. Mr. Penney asked if the board anticipated BETA
' having several meetings with individual property owners;Mr. Burke said one meeting was
budgeted, and the town will not pay for more than that. Mr. Penney suggested encouraging the
landowners to come to the February 24 meeting. Mr. French asked how many meetings are
expected after the February 24 meeting; Mr. Burke said he expects one meeting after that, but
said if the board wants an additional meeting,that can be arranged.
Mr. Burke said there are plans for the MBTA upgrades to the platform, lighting, handicapped
accessibility and cast in place mini-highs platforms. He said they will not be doing high-level
platforms. He said Amtrak wants to raise the tracks four inches, which would get them out of the
groundwater. The station platform will also have to be raised four inches, which will eliminate
the existing step down from the station building to the platform. Ms. Ashman-Collins said she is
concerned about a number of obstructions for pedestrians coming off the train.
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Motion: To adjourn at 9:30 p.m. (McClanahan- ) All in favor. PASSES
Next Planning Board Meeting: February 12, 2014 at 7:00 p.m.
Ay'_(( iL WIAA (6(lUtip()Signature of Cle k Date of Approval
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