Absent – Hauser, Milowe arrived at 7:45Pm, Bingham left at 8:45Pm

Town of Sharon Planning Board

~~Draft~~ Meeting Minutes of 11/9/11

Amended and Approved on 11/22/11

Sharon ~~Town Hall~~Community Center

Filmed by SCTV

Planning Board Attendees

Susan Price, Chair	Anne Bingham - left at 8:35 PM
Eli Hauser, Vice Chair - absent	Pat Pannone, Clerk
David Milowe – arrived at 7:45 PM	Peter O’Cain, Town Engineer - absent

Attendees

Nancy Wluka	John Marino, NHS Print
	Alice Cheyer, 1 Glenview

Chair Report

Chair Susan Price called the meeting to order at 7:30 PM.

Meeting Minutes

Ms. Bingham moved to approve the minutes of 11/02/11 as amended. Mr. Pannone seconded the motion and the Board voted 3-0-0 in favor of approval.

Stoneholm Estates Decision Letter

Ms. Price, Ms. Bingham and Mr. Pannone signed the disapproval letter for Stoneholm Estates Subdivision, as well as form C-2 (see attached). A brief discussion ensued.

Article 5

Ms. Price said that the Town Attorney is concerned that the Board of Health is mentioned under Article 5 uses and the Attorney General might see this as imposing duty on another Board. She also stated that in order to bring this to Town Meeting a vote needs to be taken to remove the two references to the Board of Health.

Mr. Pannone read the amended motion for Article 5 aloud. A brief discussion ensued. Ms. Bingham moved to recommend the changes to Article 5 at Town Meeting as the Clerk read it into the record. Mr. Pannone seconded the motion and the Board voted 3-0-0 in favor of approval.

Chair Report

Ms. Price reviewed the Chair’s Report. Mr. Pannone read a letter received from Mr. Howie Green to the Board (attached). Ms. Price read a response to this letter into the record At the time I called Mr. Green, I was upset because the letter seemed to put words in my mouth and called me unprepared and because a respected member of the Finance Committee and former longtime member of our Board had been belittled. I thought calling Mr. Green privately was better than possibly embarrassing Mr. Green by criticizing his letter publicly in the newspaper. I did get the chance to clear up some things to him during the course of the call, including Mr. Cohen’s purpose in attending the meeting and the way the meetings and hearings are conducted and how I prepared for the meeting. It is my understanding that the article of his concern will likely be sent back to the PB for further study. I look forward to Mr. Green’s continued participation and input in this process.

Light Industrial Public Hearing (continued) – Article 11

Nancy Wluka representing Martha Rader and Article 11 came before the Board. She provided a handout (attached) and stated that the property is south of the Lexus dealer on Route1, between Mick Morgan restaurant and part of the land taken for the Route 95 expansion (former Simpson property). It is currently zoned Light Industrial (LI). Landscape companies have contacted them regarding the property but this use is currently not allowable. The particular property is 6.5 acres with wetlands in the rear. The interested party will need to put in their own septic system, apply for curb cuts and bring the gas and electric lines over if they are interested in the property. Ms. Wluka said they are proposing to add this to the Zoning Bylaws Section 2332 to permit general landscape retail/wholesale supply business.

Ms. Bingham commented that the location is dense and dangerous and there are traffic issues in the area.

Ms. Bingham questioned why the article referenced Section 2332, “Other Permitted Uses” rather than Section 2331, “Permitted Industrial Uses.”

Ms. Wluka said they thought it went hand in hand with horticultural and agriculture uses which is referenced in Section 2332. She also said that the ground water protection district covers a fair amount of that part of Route 1.

Mr. Milowe asked if there is a concern that toxic chemicals could be in the fertilizers.

Ms. Wluka said that when the business applies for a building permit, there would be regulations imposed by the Board of Health.

Ms. Price noted that the Zoning Bylaw states that outside storage of materials is a special permit use in LI and the use or storage of toxic or hazardous materials will require a special permit in the Groundwater Protection District, and that storage of herbicides, pesticides or fertilizer, other than in amounts normally associated with household or agricultural uses, is prohibited in the Groundwater Protection District.

Mr. Pannone expressed that he is concerned with leakage into the ground water.

Ms. Price asked the audience if anyone in the public wanted to comment on this article. Ms. Cheyer of 1 Glenview Road said that she agreed with Mr. Pannone regarding communication amongst Boards and wanted to know if anything can be done with this articles language to alert other Boards.

Ms. Price said that the Building Inspector would inspect the zoning and refer permits to the Zoning Board.

Ms. Bingham said she is concerned with what is allowed as of right.

Mr. Pannone said that with fertilizers and pesticides, toxic items not collected may leak.

When questioned about what section the Article should be placed in, Ms. Wluka said this originally had been in Section 2331 but she was told to put it in Section 2332. She does not see it as a deterrent to put in Section 2331. She said she tells people interested in the site that they need to go though the special permit review and the Zoning Board.

Ms. Price suggested that the advantage to adding the article language to section 2331 would be that it would then be subject to the threshold in the special permit section of the Bylaw (2334) in which a permitted use over a certain size would become a special permit use (section 2332 does not have that).

Mr. Milowe said if we are comfortable that protection is afforded for landscaping materials left outside then its okay to ensure there is no concern in the future. He suggested putting the article under section 2334, special permits.

Mr. Pannone said he wants a way to protect the ground water protection district.

Ms. Price asked if the Board wants to recommend to changes the article to Section 2334M special permit use or Section 2331 or leave it in Section 2332 because it is related to agriculture uses.

Ms. Bingham moved to close the Public Hearing and Mr. Pannone seconded the motion. The Board voted 4-0-0 to close the Public Hearing

Ms. Bingham moved to recommend approval of Article 11 to Town Meeting. Mr. Pannone seconded the motion and the Board voted 4-0-0 in favor of approval.

Signs

The Board discussed two potential sign options for 93 Pond Street, Beth Israel Deaconess Healthcare of Sharon. John Marino of NHS Print representing the applicant came before the Board with two sign layouts. Mr. Marino said that any signs on the physical building will be removed to make way for this one new sign.

Both sign options were discussed with the Board. Mr. Marino was informed that as the sign is in Business District A, design guidelines need to be followed which include the color choice being a part of the historical palette. He was asked to confirm that the choice of healing blue is within the historical colors. Ms. Price asked the applicant if the sign could be designed two square feet smaller as it exceeds the limits of the guidelines, even If the Board agrees to a bonus. It also needs to be confirmed with Mr. O’Cain that the sign will not obstruct the view of traffic. The applicant agreed to respond to all of the requests and will work with Mr. O’Cain and return to the Board.

Affordable Housing - Article 8

As the hearing was previously closed, the Board continued the discussion as to the concern of 12.5% affordable units counting toward the 40B inventory. Ms. Price said Mr. O’Cain spoke with DHCD and came up with language that could be added to the definition of “affordable housing” for Article 8. Ms. Price reviewed the materials and said she thinks the off-site alternative should remain in the article because the Article is clear that on-site is preferred and that the ZBA would have to find it was advantageous to the Town to make it off-site and the Sharon Housing Partnership would need to concur.

Mr. Pannone said he wants to feel as comfortable as possible that affordable units are kept on site.

Mr. Pannone moved to recommend Article 8 to Town Meeting with the additional definition of affordable housing and replacing the first sentence of the 2^nd paragraph as written in the motion from the Town Attorney.

Mr. Milowe seconded the motion and the Board voted 3-0-0.

Mr. Milowe also commented that he reviewed all missed meeting minutes and watched the meetings on television.

Meeting Dates

The next meeting is 12/14.

Adjournment

Mr. Milowe moved to close the meeting at 9:20 PM. Mr. Pannone seconded the motion and the Board voted 3-0-0 to close the meeting.

Attachments

1. Article 11 Map prepared by Nancy Wluka on behalf of Martha Raider, TR. Proponent for Article 11.

2. 11/1/11 Letter from Howie Green.

3. 11/9 response to Howie Green letter from Susan Price.

4. 11/9/11 Stoneholm Estates Decision letter

5. 11/9/11 Form C-2 regarding Stoneholm Estates

6. 11/9/11 sign proposals for 93 Pond Street, Beth Israel Deaconess HealthCare – Sharon, from NHS Print

7. Warrant Article language for Post Office Square Affordable Housing, Article 5, and Article 8

Note: New Open Meeting Law. As of July 1, 2010 all Planning Board minutes and attachments will be available upon request by contacting the Planning Board Secretary via email at rlevitts@hotmail.com.