TOWN OF SHARON
Minutes of a Meeting of the Planning Board held on Wednesday, January 7, 2004, at 7:30 p.m., in the Town Offices.
PRESENT: JOEL TRAN, CHAIR
REGINA MANISCALCO, CLERK
ELI HAUSER
Business Transacted:
I. Meeting called to order.
59 Pond Street, Sharon Driving School, Gilli Glukhovskaya, applicant. The sign was to be yellow and black for a total of 30.66 sq. ft. The Board told the applicant the yellow color had to be taken from the historical color chart, Benjamin Moor Dorset gold being the closest to the yellow she wanted. Mr. Hauser moved to approve the sign as submitted, provided the yellow color used is a close match to the B. Moore dorset gold. Seconded by Ms. Maniscalco. Unanimously voted.
24 Pond Street, Sweethearts Three, Karen Schwab, applicant. The sign was to be made of Honduras Mahogany, with gold leaf letters and border. Ms. Maniscalco moved approval, seconded by Mr. Hauser and unanimously approved.
None.
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Administrative Assistant
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Mr. Tran explained that Ms. Ostrow was working on this but she was unable to make the meeting this evening. Also Mr. O’Cain, the Assistant Town Engineer, was working on preparing some overlay maps, and he was sick, so there was no new information available this evening on this topic.
There were several residents present who had comments that the Board listened to. Ms. Marguerite Solomon said that a 2.5 acre area was not large enough for coverage; that the area could be larger. Also, there were other high points in the Town where dishes could be placed to cover the current gaps in coverage areas.
Mr. Tran said that Ben Puritz had suggested that the Board use some of the Kendall Fund money to fund a professional study to find out where the towers are needed and have them prepare language for the zoning by-law. However, Ms. Maniscalco felt that this was not a planning issue. The Town is going to have a massive project in preparing the EO418 materials, which should be covered by the Kendall Fund. She was not sure the Board should dip into the Kendall Fund to cover the telecommunications issues. Also, since the technology for cell phones will be greatly changed over the next six months, she didn’t think the Town should rush to make any changes in the immediate future.
Mr. Tran answered that in six months the Town may not have the ability to do anything about the towers if the companies come in to go forward. The Town needs to have areas to suggest where cell towers can be placed. Ms. Solomon also reminded the Board that the petition was worded so that the Board of Selectmen and the ZBA should also be included in this process. It is the Selectmen who are the only Board that can approve sites. Mr. Tran answered that the Selectmen would be involved only for sites that were on Town property. It is up to the Planning Board to make recommendations for sites and then the Selectmen will either agree or disagree.
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Ms. Solomon said that she found four or five model by-laws used by other towns regarding this matter. She said that rather than starting from scratch, Sharon could review these and put together its own by-law based on language in these models. Also, the Massachusetts Municipal Association has guidelines for towns for specific issues such as this.
Mr. Tran said that the Board needs to decide if it wants to go with an overlay district or to just allow towers anywhere in town. However, he said before going any further, the Board would need to review the overlay district map that Mr. O’Cain had prepared to see where the dead spots were in Town, look for overlay districts, and then ask Town Counsel to review municipal law and look for overlay districts and work with that language. The Board can then review these materials and present it at a future meeting.
III. OTHER BUSINESS
----Ms. Maniscalco had offered to write a letter to the ZBA regarding the Old Post Road 40B. In that regard, Mr. Tran gave her a copy of the letter he had written for the King Phillip 40B to use as a guideline. Some of the issues that should be included in that letter were: questionable side entry; the applicant has not sent any financial information; the applicant will be removing the top of a hill to put the development on; questionable access; very dense; high level of impervious surfaces; a lot of buildings an parking. Mr. O’Cain said that Mr. Hooper, DPW Superintendent, was advocating taking out one building, which would reduce the parking requirements and to put restrictions that only one building be allowed at this site under the Special Permit.
Ms. Maniscalco added that although the Board wants to encourage age qualified and affordable housing, it still has to determine if this is the best use of this property and bring any problems to the ZBA’s attention in this letter. Mr. Hauser added that he would like to see
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included a reconfiguration of the buildings that would address the side lines. He also wondered how many lots the applicant would get if they built a CSD on this property instead. Mr. Tran answered that they wouldn’t get much, as with a CSD you only get double the lots and since they would only be able to build two homes on this property, it would only give them two additional.
---As part of its planning for the future, Mr. Hauser recommended that the Board form some discussion groups to determine how to re-use town-owned, abandoned buildings for municipal use or affordable housing. Two buildings in particular that need to be revisited are the Wilber School and the Sacred Heart school. Another committee that needed to be regrouped was the Industrial Development Committee which could hold open public forums to discuss possible economic development in the Town.
IV. SILVER TREE
Nick Merrione wanted to update the Board on the progress of this filing, in answer to some of the concerns raised the last time they were in.
---an emergency access road had been added;
---the beechwood grove has been preserved;
---more open space has been created in making the lots smaller;
---looked at public use of the community building, but have determined this would not be desirable by the residents of the community, as they will be paying for its upkeep;
---looked at adding some affordable units but this will not be economically feasible for them due to the high cost of the land;
---the parcel consists of five developable areas;
---no units are located in the wetlands or wetland buffer zones or in the steep slope areas;
---sidewalks will be put in in the areas where there are homes;
---the lots will be approximately between 5,000 to 7,000 sq. feet each;
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---approximately half of the property will be open space;
---most of the units will have two bedrooms; some will have dens;
---are trying to move the impact of the subdivision away from the neighboring homes by building towards the center of the property;
---will have a common septic system with each lot having its own tank that will be piped to a common system.
Mr. Tran asked about the flow into and out of the wetlands, advising the applicant that pre and post construction cannot be more than the current flow. The applicant indicated that they would have to put in some mitigating measures as well as some recharge. They feel they can send all water to the rear of the property.
Mr. Tran asked how the open space was going to be handled, and Mr. Merrione indicated it would be deeded to the homeowners association. Mr. Tran further added that he would like to see a corridor created along the back of the property near the Town owned open space to allow access to those trails.
Mr. Merrione inquired about flexibility in setbacks. He wanted the Board to clarify whether the 50% that could be waived was per lot or for the entire subdivision. Mr. Tran answered that he understood it to mean 50% per lot. In this instance, since the Planning Board requested the reduction in lot size to allow more open space, it would be favorably entertained if this waiver was requested.
Mr. Hauser indicated he was glad to see the lot size made smaller as well as other measures the applicant has taken. However, he said his only concern was that these houses not have a mere five feet or so between them. He was less concerned about the setbacks than the distance between houses. Mr. Merrione asked if the Board would be interested in a site walk of the premises and Mr. Tran answered that it would. Mr. Merrione also suggested that the Board look at one or
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two other subdivisions the applicant had built with homes on lots similar to what is proposed here.
A question was raised as to the number of lots that could be buildable under the conventional plan, which determine the number of bonus lots afforded the applicant. The plan that this subdivision was based on showed maximum build out, not taking into consideration any issues that would cut back the amount of buildable lots. The applicant said that they would look into this, and the Board also asked that the Town Engineer also research this issue.
The Board advised Mr. Merrione and company that they thought this was a wonderful concept and were happy to see them catering to the over 55 population.
V. There being no further business before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 10:30 p.m.