TOWN OF SHARON
PLANNING BOARD
Minutes of a Meeting of the Planning Board held on January 28, 2004, at 7:30 p.m., in the Sharon High School Library.
PRESENT: JOEL TRAN, CHAIR
SAMUEL SOLOMON, VICE CHAIR
REGINA MANISCALCO, CLERK
ELI HAUSER
PETER O’CAIN, ASST. TOWN ENGINEER
Business Transacted:
I. Meeting called to order. The Minutes of the November 19, 2003, December 17, 2003, and January 7, 2004, were reviewed and accepted with corrections.
FORM A PLANS
Bluff Head Circle, M.H. Realty Trust (Kendall Property), applicant.
The applicant was combining two parcels into one; swapping parcels for the septic system; and then creating three new lots from four. The original lots were non-conforming and will stay non-conforming, but will be less so. There is no change in the square footage of the lots, but are merely moving the lot lines to allow for the septic system. All being in order, Mr. Solomon moved to approve, seconded by Ms. Maniscalco and unanimously approved.
SIGN REVIEW
None.
_______________________
Administrative Assistant
Minutes of Meeting Page Two January 28, 2004
II. EO 418 – DISCUSSION ABOUT AFFORDABLE AND ALTERNATIVE HOUSING
Mr. Tran explained that the Board’s consultant, Larissa Brown, has made suggestions on various sites in Town for affordable and/or alternative housing – some the Town owns as open space and some are underutilized parcels, such as the Wilber School and the Sacred Heart School. There may well be other parcels in the Town that could also be considered for this type of housing. The Board is looking for input from the community. These discussions are very timely, as there are considerations by the Town to preserve and close up the Wilber School until the Town can use it.
Mr. Tran had spoken with Ben Puritz, the Town Administrator, about this, as well as to the Town Manager in Reading, who had a similar situation with a school. The Town of Reading actually hired the same contractor that was supposed to do the work on the Wilber School ten years ago for an assisted living facility. Their experience was very encouraging. The Town worked with the developer and came up with a good project, which created tax revenue for the Town, provided housing for the elderly and added patronage for the local businesses.
The question that needed to be answered by the Town of Sharon now was should the Wilber School be kept for future use as Town offices, which the Town cannot really afford now or in the near future, or use it for some type of affordable housing, or some other use.
The Board then invited Mr. Joel Wolk, a member of the Standing Building Committee, who was involved in the Wilber Building analysis. Mr. Wolk had also been on the Wilber School Reutilization Committee.
Minutes of Meeting Page Three January 28, 2004
Mr. Wolk explained that the Mt. Vernon Group was consulted to determine what would be the best use for the Wilber School (“WS”). The assisted living concept was considered a very good use for the building – it would provide a place for seniors, people who wanted to stay in the Town, and would not tax the school system. However, there were people who didn’t want this to go forward and put a lot of effort in delaying the project from going forward. There is still a vocal group in the Town that feel the building should be used for Town purposes.
The WS was evaluated and found to be structurally sound by three professional organizations.
The question most discussed is what is the Town going to use it for. The Long Range Planning Committee came up with the concept of combining it into the Town Offices, the Library, a Senior Center. The School Department could then move into the Library and the School Street building could be sold to pay for the revamping of the Library. The current Town Offices would be made into a public safety building, combining the Police and Fire Departments. The current Police Station could be turned over to the DPW, which needs additional space. This is the theory the Committee is planning for.
The WS can easily be turned into a Town Hall and used for residential units. It is adaptable to housing but probably not affordable housing because of its structure. You need a much larger structure that could be easily developed into units. You can also make it work for offices.
The suit that was brought when the assisted living conversion was proposed indicated water and sewer usage problems. If you put in offices, this won’t be an issue. Mr. Solomon asked if the water and septic was to be contained on that site for the assisted living proposal and Mr. Wolk answered that it was with a system similar to the MacIntosh Farms one – a sewage treatment plant.
Minutes of Meeting Page Four January 28, 2004
Mr. Wolk continued that as a professional or municipal building, this would be a good location. It might make more sense, however, to use the Sacred Heart School as the municipal services building rather than the WS.
Mr. Solomon asked if the building could feasibly be used as a multi use building – the ground floor for perhaps retail use with apartments above; or some type of mixed use; or for affordable or age qualified housing with a senior center?
Mr. Wolk felt that he couldn’t really answer that questions, as you can do municipal and some other type of use, but retail has its own glitches.
Mr. Tran asked if the committee had been in the building in the last year or two and Mr. Wolk said that it had not. However, the building has been ruled as structurally OK today as it was when the assisted living project was contemplated eight or so years ago. There are some drainage pipes that need to be unclogged so that water flows freely, the asbestos needs to be removed and windows boarded up. The decorative cornices need to be fixed. If a small amount of work is done, such as boarding up the windows, make it more water tight and make sure the room drains work, it could sit that way for a number of years.
So this is where the Town is currently going with the WS.
Mr. O’Cain reported that he had gone through parcels in the Town that could be used for considered for affordable and elderly housing that were either Town owned or Conservation Commission land. Some of the parcels he identified were the Kendal property, the Sacred Heart property, Town land behind the DPW and near Farnum Road.
Minutes of Meeting Page Five January 28, 2004
Linda Argerose said that there is a need for independent senior living in the Town and not so much for an assisted living facility. You have to be careful not to build the assisted living and have it sit empty. She said the concept in the Midwest is a coop idea. The Town could lease the WS to a developer who could develop the condo idea and set up by-laws for its establishment. You can limit how much the coops can increase in value when they are resold, thus keeping them affordable. This would be putting a Town asset to use as it would enter into a lease with the developer and the Town would own a share of the coop.
Some of the benefits to the Town would be collecting some type of condo fee, but they would have to be fairly low to keep the condos affordable; increase in the Town’s tax revenues; would count towards filling the Town’s requirement for affordable housing units; would not overload the school system; would fill a need for the seniors in the Town for independent living. Ms. Argerose said that she has quite a bit of information on this type of development from different states that she would share with the Town.
Mr. Tran said that he was familiar with this type of housing but that this concept was not popular in New England. However, he said it should still be considered, in addition to finding additional Town land that could be utilized for affordable housing.
Mr. Tran asked Mr. Puritz if there was a possibility of trading the Sacred Heart property for another parcel for this type of use. Mr. Puritz answered that once a parcel has a conservation restriction on it, you need an act of State Legislature to remove it. To accomplish this, the standards are becoming more and more stringent. You need to exchange some other parcel of equal conservation value. Mr. Solomon asked if the parcel was being considered for affordable housing, would it be looked at more favorably? Mr. Puritz answered that it might be a possibility.
Minutes of Meeting Page Six January 28, 2004
Mr. Solomon explained that there are subdivisions where some of the land is not developable and it gets turned over to the Town, usually to the Conservation Commission. Should the Planning Board be more circumspect about automatically having the land given to the Conservation Commission rather than just to the Town so that it could be considered for future land exchanges? Mr. Puritz answered that you may want assurances that the land will be protected but that it will also be available to the Town for a variety of needs. Sharon has been very conservation-land oriented. However, once the land is so designated, it takes a great deal to change it. If there is a way to protect it but keep it for the consideration of other Town uses, it would be an attractive arrangement.
Mr. Bailey said that the Town should consider using air rights over the MBTA commuter parking lot. This area is ideally suited for this type of development as it is almost invisible. A lot of successful housing has been built adjacent to commuter trains. You would, however, have to consider the impact on the railroad parking lot. He suggested the Board put this on its list also.
Mr. Solomon said that one problem with this would be septic issues. If you build up, you can’t have the sewage flow down into the parking lot. Additionally, this is a well protection area.
Mr. Bailey answered that you could have it piped down to a treatment plant that would be downstream from the water supply. You would need a well-planned water treatment plant, but it could be done.
Mr. Tran explained that the Board would not be making any decisions tonight but would be creating a spreadsheet of any parcels identified that do not have any restrictions on them and are Town owned, parcels that could be swapped for those that do have restrictions on them; and any other parcels that could be buildable that are Town owned.
Minutes of Meeting Page Seven January 28, 2004
Mr. Lury from Sunset Road said that there are several things that he wanted to bring up. It would be wrong to develop the WS as a Town building when it has significant economic promise for development to bring some money into the Town rather than having the Town Hall at that site. The idea is to service the people of the community and not use one of its possible economic benefits for itself. He thought the Sacred Heart property would be better suited for Town Hall operations.
His other point is that this Town keeps coming back to the same issues over and over, coming back many years later and discussing the same situation again and the same things are going on. Mothballing the WS and keeping it for later is ludicrous. Someone has to look into developing this site. It makes no sense from an economic standpoint to put it off again. This site should be put up for sale with the land being leased, but the building should be sold and developed. The Town has to make a decision that would be cost effective in what is done. The Town needs to move forward and make a decision and take responsibility to push through the sale of this building before losing this asset.
As a relative newcomer to the Town, he has already learned that unless something is proposed to be built next to a cemetery, where no residents will try and ban a development, or next to the dump, it is clear that the mentality in this Town is a “not in my back yard-itis.” When it comes to making changes in this Town, the NIMBY mentality is stronger here than in any other community he has ever seen. It seems as though it is impossible to get anything built or changed in this Town. He hoped that the other Town Boards and Townspeople would support this Board in its efforts and not hang it again as was done at Town Meeting.
Mr. Martin of North Main Street asked if the Board could make more information available to the public and get other Boards to work with it towards these goals. Mr. Tran answered that the Board has noticed
Minutes of Meeting Page Eight January 28, 2004
these meetings in the newspaper, and by letter notices, has invited not only Townspeople but also members of other Boards to come and take part in these discussions. However, if you look around this room, there are maybe ten or twelve people here total.
Board comments:
Ms. Maniscalco – The Board has asked Mr. O’Cain to put together town land, including recreation, school owned, conservation owned. Then these parcels need to be assed and see if anything has changed about them over the last 30 years. This is an important project for the Town. The Town is being strangled by 40B’s but has no grounds to stop them. People can’t live in this Town because there are no rental units, very little affordable housing and taxes are very high. The Planning Board has taken a beating over the last year in trying to rezone parcels to perhaps bring in some extra tax revenue, but it needs to keep up the process and encourage the community to step in with suggestions.
Mr. Solomon said that it was a multipronged process. You need to come up with a blueprint as to what steps the Town could take. You also need to have as many people involved in the process as possible. If there are interested parties that cannot attend Board meetings, then send your information/comments by email or regular mail and the Board will review them.
Mr. Tran said that people have asked him why bother to change anything. Sharon has come through 250 years and survived and it is a nice town. The simple fact is that there are five 40b developments pending, with the possibility of a 6th. The Board is trying to have some control over where these developments go. The Town would rather not have its affordable housing on Rattlesnake Hill. We would rather see these types of developments at a central location near the center of Town. The good thing about the WS is that about 80 affordable units could be put there. While it would only chip away at the required 10% of affordable units, it could give the Town a few
Minutes of Meeting Page Nine January 28, 2004
years of breathing room, which would give us time to look at development on other parcels of land.
His personal feeling was that there were many praises for the Reading project that was similar to the WS. They have a 99-year lease on the property, it pays taxes, they have a community room inside and it has a totally positive effect on the Town. There’s no reason why this couldn’t work in Sharon with the WS. The Town is certainly looking for more administrative space, but if we are going to be spending 1.3 million dollars to mothball this building, maybe we should be looking at alternative places, such as the Sacred Heart School for Town Hall uses. The developer who was previously interested in developing the WS is still interested in doing this project. It is a question of whether or not the Town is interested. The Town is not going to have an extra 20
million dollars in the next five or ten or even twenty years to take on this type of project, so this building will sit “closed up” and nothing done with it. The Board would like to have more comments from people as to what the Board should pursue concerning this discussion, which will be continued at the next meeting, here at the High School Library , at which time the Board’s planning consultant will also be present.
III. CELL TOWER DISCUSSION
Mr. Solomon recused himself from these discussions as he is an abutter to a proposed site.
Mr. Tran explained that the Town is looking at areas where cell towers could be placed in the Town, as the Town is being sued by one of the providers. The Town is trying to determine where the best possible locations would be and not having the providers come in and tell the Town where they will put them. Mr. O’Cain, the Town Engineer, has drawn several maps, showing locations of existing towers, where there are dead spots, and where additional coverage is needed.
Minutes of Meeting Page Ten January 28, 2004
Mr. O’Cain explained that he had highlighted existing towers, church steeples, high elevation points, water towers, high-tension towers.
Mr. Tran explained that federal law says that if a cell provider can show that they need coverage in a certain area, they can pick their own spot. The Town is trying to create areas that may be on Town-owned land, which would make it possible for the Town to possibly collect a rent for the towers. Certain areas of the town have been isolated. The Town is trying to create an overlay district where the cell providers could come in with a special permit and create a new site. This is the first step. The Board is just seeing these maps for the first time and will still need to explore other sites. One of the areas the Board is looking at is the Hampton Road water tower. The Board is trying to keep towers away from residential areas. The Board is actually
working with a consultant who has worked with other municipalities and will work with this Board.
Mr. Tran asked the Planning Board members, other Town Boards and Town residents, to make suggestions about areas that would make sense from the Town’s and neighborhood points of view.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
Lake Management Committee – The Board has previously appointed two members to this committee, but those appointments precede all of the current Planning Board members. Richard Kramer and Walter Newman had been the Board representatives to this Committee. They are still serving in that capacity. Mr. Tran felt it may be a good idea for the Board to call in these gentlemen and see if they are still active on this committee and see if they still want to serve on it. If anyone else is interested in serving, they should contact the Planning Board. The Board should also invite Messrs. Kramer and Newman in to a Board meeting and discuss their appointments.
V. There being no further business before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 11:00 p.m.
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