TOWN OF SHARON
PLANNING BOARD
Minutes of a Meeting of the Planning Board held on February 19, 2003, at 8:00 p.m., in the Town Offices.
PRESENT: ARNOLD COHEN, CHAIR
JOEL TRAN, VICE CHAIR
NADINE OSTROW, CLERK
SAMUEL SOLOMON
REGINA MANISCALCO
Business Transacted:
I. Meeting called to order. The Minutes of the February 5, 2003, meeting were reviewed and accepted with corrections.
FORM A PLANS
None.
SIGN REVIEW
Caldwell Banker, Post Office Square. Tim Sullivan from Barlow Signs came before the Board to present this sign. It was basically the same as the one that was there now, but they were eliminating the “Hunneman” notation. The sign would be made of wood, 24 sq. ft. in size, white with blue letters. Mr. Solomon moved approval, seconded by Ms. Maniscalco and unanimously voted.
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Administrative Assistant
Minutes of Meeting Page Two February 19, 2003
II. EAST FOXBORO STREET – N. VORA
Mr. Vora explained to the Board that the owner of the property at 70 East Foxboro Street was in the process of selling this property to someone who wanted to open an automobile repair shop on the premises. The potential buyers of the property are trying to get a Special Permit from the ZBA for this use.
Mr. Cohen told Mr. Vora he was not sure why Mr. Vora had come before the Planning Board, as this was a ZBA issue. The Planning Board didn’t really have any input.
Mr. Vora answered that he was involving the Board because he felt if the ZBA allowed this, they would in fact be spot zoning. There was a section of the zoning by-law that specifically prohibited service and repair of motor vehicles in this area, and spot zoning was something the Planning Board should be involved in.
Mr. Vora wanted to explain this situation to the Board. This property has not been used for any type of motor vehicle repair for the last 26 years. It is currently used for storage of some antique cars. Before that, it was used for the storage of school buses. It has not been used as a garage for automobile repair for the last 26 years.
Mr. Cohen explained that if the ZBA granted this special permit, they potentially would be in violation of the by-laws, if what Mr. Vora said was true. This area is zoned R2 and a surface and groundwater protection district. That type of use is not allowed in this area. He agrees with Mr. Vora that this would be a non-conforming use. Mr. Cohen didn’t think the ZBA would issue a decision that would be in violation of the by-laws.
Mr. Solomon explained that it was the right of anyone to go to the ZBA to request a variance. The question here is why would the ZBA consider granting such a variance. It is a prohibited use under current zoning. The ZBA would have to have some legitimate reason that this use would be OK and not detrimental to the district. Mr. Solomon also indicated that the Planning Board would not be involved in this special permit. The only time the Board becomes involved is when there is a
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specific by-law that is being changed in the zoning by-laws, for which the Planning Board needs to hold a public hearing, and then make recommendations to Town Meeting as to whether or not it supports the change.
Mr. Cohen further explained that if for some reason the ZBA does grant a special permit, interested parties have the right to appeal that decision. Mr. Cohen suggested that the abutters put together a fact sheet stating what the premises have been used for in the past and present it to the ZBA at the next hearing. The ZBA, like the Planning Board, makes its decision based on all the issues that are presented. Generally, they make the right decision.
III. DILAPA PROPERTY – SHARON CENTER
The following individuals were present to meet with the Board to discuss the Dilapa property:
Marisa Dilapa, John Dilapa – owners
Philip Macchi, Dilapa’s lawyer
Post Office Square Committee Members: George Bailey, Mike Baskin, Bill Croteau and Philip Kopel.
Mr. Kopel explained to the Board that the Dilapa’s were interested in updating their properties located in and around Post Office Square. The Dilapas had met with the PO Square Committee and the Selectmen and they had incorporated many of the modifications suggested by the Committee into their design. They now wanted to present these designs to the Planning Board since the Board would be involved in site plan review. Mr. Kopel said that this was an opportunity to do some planning in the Square at its beginning stages, rather than later when plans were nearing their completion. Mr. Macchi, the Dilapa’s attorney, would now explain what was being proposed.
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The Dilapas are seeking to refurbish three buildings that they owned. They have been working with the Board’s design guidelines to see what would or would not be allowed in the Square. They have decided on a mixed use, business and residential. Their refurbishing of the buildings included lots of glass on the bottom floors. There were two important factors that they tried to include/improve on, one being the pedestrian circulation within the Square and the other to move all parking to the rear of the buildings. Since these buildings are about 30 years old, and most of the parking is in front, they could not move the parking under the current design.
The applicants are treating both their properties as one project. The first property is the strip mall behind the Fleet Bank. They are looking to improve the circulation from Billings Street to Pond Street. They propose to speak with the Fleet people and try and create a flowing walkway through that property, with plantings and such, to make it feel more like one property rather than the way the Bank currently seems to be separated from the rest of that mall. The existing buildings in the mall would be refurbished to be more in character with what the regulations require – large areas of glass on the bottom floors, with the upper floors being residential.
The other property, which is across the street from the Sharon Credit Union, would also be refurbished in the same style. However, they are also proposing to build three buildings along the front of the current parking lot, and shift the parking to the back. They will make it pedestrian friendly, hoping to connect it through to CVS, and design it so that it mimics what the mall property looks like following the design guidelines for building.
Mr. Tran asked how much additional square footage would be added with the three new buildings. Mr. Macchi answered that two of the buildings would be 40’x50’ and one would be 40’x120’. They would each have three stories. Mr. Tran further asked if they would have adequate parking. Mr. Macchi answered that they would not under the existing regulations. That was why they were requesting that the Board support their request for an overlay district. They were not seeking to rezone the area, as no one likes to rezone. They were asking for an
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article to go before Town Meeting to create an apartment overlay district. They do not want this district to be created solely for this applicant, but to apply to anyone else in the square that was seeking to refurbish their properties. This would create guidelines for the others to do something that they would not otherwise be able to do. This overlay district would set out guidelines for frontage, parking, pedestrian walkways, etc.
Mr. Macchi explained that it has been found that for a small center to survive, there has to be pedestrian movement. This type of district would only work if the center of Town is close to a railroad. It is geared to attract people who are single or young couples, no families, and are commuters. You do want them to stay a long time with little turnover.
Mr. Macchi further stated that the Board needed to identify all areas in the Town that would fit within this new district. The other potential owners that may at some point want to update their properties need to be notified and heard from. The district should be set up to treat everyone uniformly. He added that the applicants will not go to the expense of drawing further plans until they are assured they can work something out with the Planning Board to support this overlay district.
Mr. Solomon wasn’t sure this proposed plan would work under current zoning. Under current zoning, based on what was presented here, the applicants would need an additional 65 parking spaces. He was trying to figure out how you could reduce the required spaces in the overlay district. Could the spaces allotted to residences be reused for the commercial properties also. However, the appeal of the apartments here is that you would not need to use your car to get to the train station. During commercial hours, the cars would remain parked in the lots. So how can the parking be rewritten to accommodate the commercial use during the day. What would the overlay district provide in this instance? Mr. Macchi answered that you would need to establish the
density for the parking for the apartments and the density for the retail portion of the buildings. Mr. Solomon asked if Mr. Macchi was then suggesting that the overlay district would use less than one parking space per unit? Mr. Macchi answered that there was not enough parking anywhere in the Square to have one for one parking. There needs to be more of an exemption for the retail, as they do not stay in the parking lot overnight.
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Mr. Solomon asked what the regulations were in the Norwood and Walpole overlay districts. Mr. Macchi answered that they allowed the use of public parking areas. Basically, it allowed apartments with mixed use, retail.
Mr. Solomon said there were two issues to be addressed: should there be an adjustment in the by-law pertaining to parking spaces; and should there be some shared use of parking spaces.
Mr. Macchi said that he was reluctant to change the existing zoning because what may work in one place may not work somewhere else. That is why they are trying to do an overlay district in the Square as it will not affect any other area of Town. The applicants wanted to know if the Board was interested and what the mechanism will be.
Mr. Cohen answered that he was sure the Board would be in favor of this kind of refurbishing if it would make the Town look nice and would add to the commercial base to some extent. The Board was interested in working with the applicants on this. He did ask if the applicant had considered including any affordable housing in any of these buildings. Mr. Macchi answered that they had not explored this at all, as it was not practical in the existing buildings.
Mr. Tran said that if you look at the zoning map, the Business A district is only in the center of Town. Therefore, any changes to it would not affect other areas in the Town. He personally did not like overlay districts and would rather make a change to the zoning by-law. Mr. Tran also inquired if the retail/commercial space would be equal to what is there now, or would there be an increase in the retail space. Mr. Macchi answered that it may be decreased by a diminimous amount – it would not be a huge loss.
Mr. Tran agreed that change was needed for these buildings and any change would be good, but he wanted it done in a manner where there would be enough parking. He agreed with Mr. Cohen that the Board would be willing to work with any property owners to achieve
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this. He encouraged the applicants to pursue changes and the Board would work with them. Mr. Solomon agreed but indicated that the Board would need to know exactly what type of changes were being proposed.
Mr. Macchi said that he had a client that wanted to go forward with these proposals, but they didn’t want to languish and have this disappear down the road. It was also important to make sure that this change would not benefit just the Dilapas, but any other property owners in the center of Town. He also wanted to know who the person from the Board would be that he could stay in contact with to answer questions and concerns, and keep the Board updated on what was being done.
Mr. Cohen thought it might be a good idea to bounce these issues off Town Counsel, to see what his thoughts would be on which way to proceed, overlay or zoning change. Mr. Solomon volunteered to be the Board’s contact on this matter.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
Mr. Solomon informed the Board that discussion regarding the Wilbur School was picking up, especially on the design side. The Planning Board should be involved as it is responsible for site plan review in the Post Office Square area. It would be good to get the Board involved right from the start, instead of being pulled in when the plans are already done. A major area of concern is the parking requirements.
EO418 – Ms. Maniscalco informed the Board that the redrafted transportation plan was accepted. Therefore, the full amount was being requested for three of the areas of the EO418.
V. There being no further business before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 10:45 p.m.
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