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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPLANNINGbrd_04022014 Planning Board Minutes April 2,2014 Present: Tom French, Chair; Beth Ashman-Collins, Clerk; Michael McClanahan,Don Cleary, Ralph Penney, Cheryl Collins,Rich LeBlanc; Alternate Mike Feck Shaun P. Burke, Director of Planning and Development; Jennifer Crotty Davis,Administrative Secretary dut4P6.' l ga-'sr a_.,..k t, O "4r' -P 1 2 g a 4 -' &, 3a 301 a' °'-1,113 frig itfM ' : >�--'�� "-"` 'u`-r_ i"'v 1" %41011;12F711.19 "13�r kS:'s d k*a 3 �4...otrespojd{�'rnc - e �.w . �1I v j� AkS'3 i 317jI 3 'yam t.u. .xs .I ilAe3� ';,3 =£kz`(£:_. ..,„ 1. � H'�nff .��^ :....} _i ... .,,,,.3� ,{� .,za A l �ili 1. Minutes March 26,2014 Motion: To approve as submitted (Feck-Cleary) Five in favor. Penney abstained. PASSES 2. Public Hearing notices:Attleboro,North Attleboro,Norton 3. Spring 2014 NRT Report 4. March 27, 2014 SPREDD Commission Planning Board representative reappointment Motion: To reappoint Mr. Flynn as the Planning Board's representative to the SRPEDD Commission (Ashman-Collins-Cleary) All in favor. PASSES Mr. Burke presented a draft decision,which includes Attorney Frank Spillane's suggestion to add"structural"to Condition#7 to differentiate between construction work and yard work. Mr,French suggested amending condition#4d to specify tree cutting in the open space be "extremely minimal" and limited to safety and sound vegetation management practices. Mr. French suggested specifying access to the lots should be off Dutton Drive, not Winter Street. Mr. Penney asked about the 10-foot strip around the lots;Mr. French said that is an additional buffer for the neighbors. Mr.Penney asked if it could be used to access the open space. Mr. French said it could not because it would be owned by Lot 4. Mr. Penney said the owners should be able to use the open space. Mr. Burke said the land will be unbuilt and remain open space; he said the open space doesn't have to provide all of the amenities listed in the Zoning By-Law. He said the residents will still benefit from it because it will provide them with a value. Mr.Penney said he thought the concept was to provide open space people can use; Mr. Burke said the residents will benefit because the land will remain unbuilt. [Mr. LeBlanc arrived at this time] Mr. French said one of the ideas with a cluster is to create a sense of neighborhood,with the houses closer together. He said open space from other subdivisions has been donated to private land trusts;Mr. Burke said if the land trust allows it,the public can have access. Attorney 1 4/2/2014 Spillane said the general public would not have access to this open space; if it was given to the homeowner's association, only the owners of those four lots would have access.He said this way, one homeowner will own the open space and know they are responsible for it. Mr.Penney said if the open space cannot be used,it defeats the purpose. Ms. Collins said the open space provides a buffer for the neighbors and provides the residents with an undeveloped view: Mr. Penney asked if no more than 15% of the open space is wetlands;Mr. Burke said it is not. Mr. LeBlanc asked if Lot 4 could decide to sell the open space to a non-profit land trust;Mr.Burke said the owner would have to come back to amend the special permit. Motion: To approve the special permit for Dutton Drive as amended(Cleary-LeBlanc) Feck—In favor. The character of the development will fit in with the neighborhood,the developer worked hard to make it fit in,the safety issues have been addressed with signage,there will be easy access to the site, a cluster development has less impact on the natural environment, new development will bring value to the town. Collins In favor. This is a well-thought out plan,will fit in with area,the cluster will get the neighborhood closer and save resources,will have a positive fiscal impact,protect open space by having it owned by someone who will be responsible for it, and the safety issues have been worked out. LeBlanc—In favor. This is a nice plan,the developer has addressed all of the issues raised,the roadway will have good sight lines, and I like the plan for the open space. Cleary In favor. This will be a good use for the land,will protect the wetland and stream,will fit in with the neighborhood, and have a positive fiscal impact. Ashman-Collins In favor. The residential cluster has a lot of benefits for conservation and the way it handles water runoff,the design will fit in with the neighborhood character,will be low maintenance and bring value to the town. Penney- Abstained. I appreciate the creative drainage plan,but am uncomfortable with the open space plan. French-In favor. The plan will have a positive environmental and fiscal impact, and the developer has worked to provide good sight lines,which will increase safety. Six in favor. 0 opposed. 1 abstention. PASSES Motion: To close the public hearing (Cleary-Collins) All in favor. PASSES -ji 5��.,-��,� Mr. Burke presented a draft decision. He said he spoke with Mr.Mikrut from Firestone regarding.condition#10,which requires the bay doors to be closed until 11 am on the weekends. Mr. Mikrut has suggested a new condition#10 saying"In the event that a formal noise complaint n 2 4/2/2014 is filed with the town once the store is in operation,Firestone will be required to provide field measurements of sound generated from the store. In the event the field measurements of sound generated by Firestone are above 50 dB at residences,Firestone will be responsible to provide sound attenuation to mitigate the sound to 50 dB or less." Mr. French pointed out that condition would not be specific to a day of the week, but to any complaint. Mr.Penney said condition#11 prevents outside storage and sales. Mr. French said that prohibits display stands or kiosks from being placed in the parking lot. Mr. Penney asked if condition#12 would prohibit customers from dropping their car off the night before;Mr. French said that was not the intention of that condition. Shannon Rutherford from VHB said Firestone would like to allow customers to drop their cars off the night before. Motion: To approve the special permit for Firestone Complete Auto Care, 229-243 School Street, as amended with new condition#10, and revised condition#12 to exclude customer drop- `offs (Collins-LeBlanc) Penney—In favor. I am comfortable with the conditions,this will be a good use for the location, and the benefits outweigh the detriments. Ashman-Collins- The benefits outweigh the detriments, and the plans take into account health, safety and convenience. Cleary In favor. This will be a good use for the area, and the developer has'worked to protect the environment as much as possible. [Mr. McClanahan arrived at this time] Collins-In favor. The developer has addressed the environmental issues on a challenging site, and this will be an excellent use of property LeBlanc—In favor. This will be a great use of the corner,I like the one-way in, one-way out traffic circulation,the surrounding land will be protected,the business will tie into the other retail developments, and will bring new business to town. Feck-In favor. The benefits outweigh the detriments and this will be a good use of the land French-In favor. This will finish off the commercial development in the area, will be a low traffic generator, have a positive fiscal impact,the developer has worked well with the Conservation Commission,the health, safety, convenience and general welfare will be protected, especially with the one-way in, one-way out traffic pattern. Seven in favor. 0 opposed. 0 abstentions. PASSES Motion: To close the public hearing (Ashman-Collins-Cleary) All in favor. PASSES 3 4/2/2014 The clerk read the public hearing notice. Residential Compound (Article 27) Mr. French said this was intended as an alternative to the traditional subdivision. Mr. McClanahan said the compound and cluster by-laws were adopted at the same time. He said he understands there have been a few compounds that have not gone perfectly, but he thinks overall, they have been successful. He said the compound is a good use for smaller parcels. Mr. French said a developer has to prove they could do a traditional subdivision on the parcel in order to do a residential compound. Mr. McClanahan said the compound, which is a special permit, is another development tool the board can use. Public Comment The clerk read a letter from Stan Feck, 494 Stearns Avenue. Mr. Feck said the bylaw may need to be reworked, but should not just be eliminated. Bill Clemmeysaid the by-law should not be eliminated, but could be improved. Mr. Stan Feck suggested the town could consider an estate lot by-law, which would reduce the frontage requirement with larger lots. Mr. Burke said the lower frontage requirement would help reduce density because it would not force as much road to be built. Mr. French said the town holds no surety on private was and homeowners have no tY private ways, guarantee the road will be constructed correctly because the town does not inspect it. Mr.Burke said the town inspects the drainage and makes sure the road is accessible,but does not do compaction tests or supervise the paving. Mr. Stan Feck said he thinks without the residential compound by-law,there will be a lot of two- and three-lot subdivisions with a lot of unnecessary roadway. He said right now, it might not be feasible for developers to build the extra road on some parcels, but someday it might be. Mr. McClanahan asked what the problems have been with residential compounds; Mr. Burke said there were problems with early compound developments in terms of snow plowing,road maintenance, mail delivery and school busses. Mr. Stan Feck said the state has begun recommending narrower subdivision roadways. Mr. French said it is good to have a standard to apply to all portions of town, and the board can evaluate proposals on a case-by-case standard and allow waivers where appropriate. n 4 4/2/2014 Ms. Ashman-Collins said residential compound roads are not designed for school busses. Mr. Burke said whether the bus goes down a street is up to the School Department. Mr. McClanahan said the post office will not go down some private ways. Mr. Penney said the discussions about residential compounds always focuses on the road and he thinks the most important issue is emergency vehicles and school busses being able to turn around, and an 18-foot wide road may not be too narrow if there is away to turn around. He said residential compound specifications could be tightened. He said they are only allowed in Rl and require minimum lot size of 60,000 square feet, so a compound could be done on 120,000 square feet of land. He said a cluster residential development would need at least 300,000 square feet. He said a compound is the ideal solution for an owner who wants to separate a lot for his children. Ms. Ashman-Collins said she thought that was the intention, but recently,more have been developed as speculative housing. Ms. Ashman-Collins said the board should have clarification on whether compound roads are constructed adequately for school busses, or simply adequate for homeowner access. Mr. McClanahan said busses should not go down private ways. Mr. LeBlanc said the residents want their children and their trash to be picked up. Mr. French said the Police and Fire Departments comment on all the development plans, so the board would know if public safety is uncomfortable with a plan. Ms. Collins said she isn't sure this by-law is ready to go to.Town Meeting because the board has too many questions and differing opinions. Mr. French said his concern is about the town not having surety on private ways. Mr. Stan Feck said if the road has to be built to town standards, it may as well be public. He said the purpose of the original compound by-law was to reduce maintenance costs for the town, and taxpayers should not have to pay for the maintenance of public ways with two or three houses. Mr. Bill Clemmey said the fact that the road is private would be included in the homeowners' deeds. Mr. Burke said there were a lot of phone calls 10-15 years ago from people wanting to have the private ways accepted. Mr. Cleary asked if doing away with the by-law would make the existing residential compounds pre-existing,non-conforming lots. Mr.French said there are thousands of houses in town that were built under previous zoning. Mr. Burke said there is a provision in the by-law that protects those houses for area and setback. He said taking use of the rights granted in a special permit ensures those rights forever. He said the use may be gone from the by-law,but that does not make the houses pre-existing, non-conforming. [Mr. Oreste arrived at this time] 5 4/2/2014 Motion: To close the public hearing (Penney-McClanahan) All in favor. PASSES Architectural Projections into Setback(Article 26) The clerk read the public hearing notice. Mr. French said this by-law would allow minimal projections for landings, chimneys and windows. Mr. Penney said he thinks this makes a lot of sense. Motion: To close the public hearing (Penney-Ashman-Collins) All in favor. PASSES Airport(Article 25) The clerk read the public hearing notice. Mr.French said he understands the intention is to better coordinate the Zoning By-Law and the Airport Master Plan,but asked about Light Manufacturing. Mr. Burke said there are several companies at the airport that fabricate custom parts. Mr. Cleary asked how much property outside the airport is in the airport district. Mr. Burke said the airport district is the airport property;the zone does not cross Fruit Street. Mr. Clemmey asked if this would apply to the whole airport or just the terminal and said this could add a lot of traffic to the airport. Mr. Burke said the general public cannot access the airport through the secure gates. Motion: To close the public hearing (Penney-McClanahan) All in favor. PASSES Medical Marijuana (Article 24) The clerk read the public hearing notice. Mr. McClanahan asked about the changes town counsel made. Mr. Burke said counsel changed the definition, and that is the text that appears on the warrant. Mr.French said the definition has been expanded to specify where the use can be conducted. Mr. Cleary asked if ppharmaciesare ever allowed to sell medical marijuana, where would they fit into this. Mr. Burke said at that point,medical marijuana would be regulated by the FDA, so the town would not be able to control it locally.-Mr.French asked if marijuana dispensaries are required to be non-profit; Mr.Burke said they are. Mr. Penney said the setbacks the board discussed have been maintained in town counsel's text and asked if they are appropriate. Mr. Burke said he thinks they are. 6 4/2/2014 Motion: To close the public hearing (Ashman-Collins-Penney) All in favor. PASSES B4-Gateway Business (Article 23) The clerk read the public hearing notice. Motion: To close the public hearing (Ashman-Collins-Collins) All in favor. PASSES Adaptive Reuse of Historic Structures (Article 21) The clerk read the public hearing notice. Mr. Burke said the board has discussed the buildings in town that could come under this proposed by-law. Mr.Bill Clemmey said this article would allow old and new use together, is very flexible and would allow buildings to be reused. He said a lot of those buildings would be reused as residential. Mr. Burke said that would be a special permit use. Mr. Clemmey said if use variances are going to be allowed, the zoning by-law should be changed to allow it. He said the overall impact of the by-law would have to be considered, not just the chocolate factory. Mr. Burke asked the board if this is intended to be a use variance or a special permit; Mr.French said it is a special permit. Mr. Burke said the statute says a residential use may allow a special permit in an industrial zone;this by-law is drafted to allow a special permit to allow a change in use with a majority vote of the special permit granting authority.He said use variances are not allowed in Mansfield. He said special permits go with the use, not the land,and can be conditioned on things like ownership or time, but a variance goes with the land and is forever. Mr.Penney said the mechanism is different, but the end result is the same. Mr. Burke said they are two different procedures with different tests. Ms.Ashman-Collins said this by-law is all about preserving historic:buildings. Steve Schoonveld,Finance Committee, asked if this would give the board more control; Mr. Burke said it would. Ms.Ashman-Collins said it would give the owner of an older structure the ability to come to the board for a special permit. Mr. Oreste asked how the special permit would work with a residential use; Mr. Burke said the special permit would be granted for the use and the number of residential use would be specified. He said if the units are condos,there would be an association that owns the common area,and even with changes in individual ownership, the special permit would stand. He said if in the future,the homeowner's association decides to sell the building and return it to industrial use,the special permit would be extinguished. 7 - 4/2/2014 Mr. Schoonveld said the chocolate factory developers are coming to see them next week and said he thinks the numbers they have provided are conservative. He said they have asked the developers to present some ranges. Motion: To close the public hearing (Penney-McClanahan) All in favor. PASSES Transit-Oriented Development (Article 20) The clerk read the public hearing notice. Mr. French said the board has been working on this by-law for several years as a way to encourage redevelopment of areas around the train station. Mr. Burke said town counsel has made a couple of editorial and legal changes, including restructuring the by-law to put the table of uses and map at the end of the by-law, as well as removing several redundant paragraphs, which does not substantively change the by-law. Mr. Burke said counsel also pointed out the board cannot require the donation of open space to the town or a non-profit as part of a development proposal;that has been removed. Mr.Burke said counsel removed the reference to combining the public hearings for special permit, subdivision control, site plan; he said the law recognizes the board's ability to do those hearings concurrently. Mr. French said there has been concern about doing this zoning now, before the access issues are addressed. He said he thinks the town needs to move forward with the zoning to use it,along with the BETA study,to facilitate obtaining a second access over the CSX land, as well as to get funding from state programs like MassWorks. He said he thinks everyone agrees the zoning won't work without a second means of access. Paul Connor asked why the United Oil property on Winthrop Avenue was not included in TOD and asked if that may be one of the access ways out; Mr. Burke said that is not being considered. Mr. Burke said that property is not within a five-minute walk of the train station, so it was not included in the TOD zone. He said there had been a discussion about moving the train station to the West Church Street/High Street area because of the concentration of residential uses within a five-minute walk. However,he said that option will probably not be considered. Mr. Penney said the TOD map has changed several times after discussions with property owners. Mr. Connor said his lot is 38,000 square feet, which would be too small for a lot in the TOD zone. Mr. Burke said the lot would either need a variance or could be combined with another. Mr. Bill Clemmey said he spoke with a real estate manager at Transit Real Estate, which does real estate with the MBTA,who said he did not know about this project. 8 4/2/2014 Mr. Clemmey said changes were made to the article at the March 5 meeting, and changes have been made since then by town counsel. He said there may have been other things missed by town counsel and other boards, and he doesn't understand why this article has been rushed through. He said the article is not the article the board agreed on and was submitted. Mr. Clemmey said the final BETA report has not been submitted and reviewed by the board,the town or the selectmen. Mr. French said BETA presented its three recommendations at the selectmen's meeting. Mr. Clemmey said the Planning Board had a discussion about parking structures and parking facilities, which he said was not changed in the final article. He said the Table of Uses includes Parking Facility as an allowed use, but not Parking Structure. Mr. French asked if the defmitions would be changed; Mr. Burke said they do. Mr. Burke said Town Meeting voted funding to recodify several town documents like the Zoning By-Law, Charter, General By-Law. Mr. Clemmey said there are conflicting definitions in the by-law. Ms. Collins asked if there could be a parking description for TOD because it is a separate entity with its own rules. Mr.Burke said that would be appropriate. Mr. French said the by-law specifies the definitions included in the zoning district. Mr. Clemmey said there are conflicts in the by-law. He said it is better than it ever was, and he is excited to get TOD going. He said members of the.Board of Selectmen had questions at last week's meeting and town counsel said the article should have been nailed down before the warrant closed. Mr. Clemmey said different sections of the by-law use different ways of numbering and percentages. Mr. French said he has read a lot of different TOD by-laws from around the country, and he thinks this by-law is reasonable. He said the board has worked hard on this by- law, and it would allow developers to be creative and come in with different ideas. Mr. Clemmey said it is a good article,but it needs more work. Mr. French said zoning changes all the time because situations come up that require towns to adapt. He said he thinks this is a good article and will help move the town forward to get infrastructure funding. He said he thinks it is worth moving forward with it this year rather than waiting another year. Mr. Dan Clemmey said it is difficult to discuss the article, and said he wouldn't want to come back to permit a property under this article. Mr. French said he thinks the article is clear,and if a developer has questions, they can discuss them with the zoning enforcement officer. Ms. Collins asked Mr. Clemmey why this article wouldn't go forward when it could be the foundation of new development. She said if there are problems,they can be fixed. Mr. Dan 9 4/2/2014 Clemmey said they spoke with a company that does the retail leasing for the MBTA and they feel it is not ready. He said they are basically the only landowners who are going to develop their land, and they are looking for long-term development. He said he doesn't think the density is the issue,they are more concerned about parking on the first level. Mr. Bill Clemmey said they submitted plans from Bergmeyer Group when the Cecil Group was doing work for the town. He said a former Town Manager had an agreement for the landowners to work together on the area. He said he is not an expert on TOD,he is learning as the process goes. He said this is a complete zoning change for the town and getting more outside input would have made it a lot better. Ms. Collins said there has been a lot of work done on this for several years. Mr. Clemmey said there were a lot of changes made a the March 5 meeting, and the article had to be submitted the next day,then town counsel made additional changes, and the Board of Selectmen have it on their agenda next week. He said when something is so fluid at the end, it may be better to ask if it is ready. He said the board still has to take a vote whether or not to support the article. Ms. Collins said the Planning Board, Board of Selectmen and town counsel have all looked at the article. Mr. Schoonveld said another year would be too long to wait,the town's tax burden is huge and will only increase. He asked if Mr. Clemmey wants this to pass as is; Mr. Clemmey said he doesn't believe it is a supportable article. He said if he thought it was supportable,he would support it. Mr. French said the existing traffic situation makes it difficult to do anything. He said as Mr. Ross has said,this has to be a public-private partnership because one side cannot do it all alone. He said putting the zoning in place will start the ball rolling,which will benefit the landowners. He said if the article has to be fixed next year,that can be done. Ms. Collins the by-law will help the town get funding. Mr. Burke said Attleboro got$5 million build an access road through the MassWorks program. Mr. Burke said the T has announced they are beginning work to replace four bridges in Fall River and New Bedford on lines they have acquired from CSX. He said the T may do something similar in the Mansfield-Foxboro area,with CSX still having access to the line. Motion: To close the public hearing (Cleary-Ashman-Collins) All in.favor. PASSES ' "r A" -"'" [Mr. Penney left the meeting at this time] Mr. Cleary asked about Article 22. Mr. Burke explained that came in as a citizens' petition,now sponsored by the town,to add age-restricted housing in Rl if it is affiliated with a recognized �.. 10 4/2/2014 which includes affiliated uses like soup kitchens, educational uses and housing for members of the religious order. In this article,the "housing"use has been expanded to include housing for people other than members of the congregation. Mr. French asked why the warrant indicates it is a Planning Board article; Mr. Burke said he recommended the article be sponsored by the Board of Selectmen,not the Planning Board. [Mr. Penney returned at this time] Mr. Burke said the Board of Selectmen's public hearing on the Camden Lane street acceptance will be held April 9, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. He said everything should be done by that time except the wearing course, which will be done by Town Meeting. Mr. French asked the downside to waiting another year. Mr. McClanahan asked how many unbuilt lots are left; Mr. Burke said there is one. Motion: To support acceptance of Camden Lane if all the improvements have been completed prior to Annual Town Meeting (McClanahan-Collins) Five in favor. Feck, Penny abstained. PASSES Mr. Burke said town counsel made the editorial changes to the Planning Board articles unilaterally. He said two of counsel's changes were substantive and necessary,but the rest were editorial changes counsel made on his own. Mr.French said the board is scheduled to meet with the Board of Selectmen on April 9 to discuss the zoning articles, and the Northeastern University students will make their presentation on downtown traffic issues on April 7 at 7:00 p.m. Mr. French asked the members to think about an article they may want to present to Town Meeting. Mr. Penney suggested putting together an outline of long-term issues to talk with the Board of Selectmen about, such as sidewalks,which Mr. Ross suggested might be a good project for the Northeastern University students. Mr. Burke suggested that would be a good topic to bring up at the April 7 meeting. Motion: To adjourn at 10:15 p.m. (McClanahan- ) All in favor. PASSES Next Regular Planning r oard Mee I. g: April 16, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. N / A i ; Li- /6 -1q Signature o Clerk Date of Approval 11 4/2/2014