Town of Otis
Planning Board Meeting Minutes March 11, 2024
Call to order 7:05 PM
• Roll Call:
Mark Anthony – Chair
Hal Kobrin
Barb Gallagher
Rona Knight
• Approval of December 11, 2023 minutes
Hal motion to accept, Rona second, all in favor.
• Approval of February 12, 2024 minutes
Hal motion to accept, Mark second, all in favor.
• Form A: 23 and 31 Parish Drive
SK Designs here representing Robert F Prindiville
Recommended that surveyors get form a / planning board endorsement for these types of property line changes so issues don’t come up after the final ruling.
Questions last meeting weather property owners on both sides were in agreement on the proposed plan, SK Designs brought the necessary affidavits from both property owners.
Rona motion to accept, Hal second, all in favor.
• Public Hearing: Site Plan Review: 27 N Main Road
Zoe, Using current pre-existing retail space, no site alterations, no changes to land or building, sewer hookup, storefront has separate entrance, there is also rear emergency entrance.
Easy access from road, street parking, also additional overflow parking lot on the side of building, 4 flood lights that are very bright, building and land scape will remain the same,
Plan to sell furniture, antiques, oddities, do not have current plan for hours since we do not know what ideal hours would be, year-round, will also depend on how much time we will be able to man the shop, the need for a survey and engineered plans would be discouraging due to cost.
Hal, comment about street parking, tight area, off street parking would be preferred, parking is not approved street parking for retail space, there may be space for people to choose to pull over but they are not approved parking spaces, safety concerns with parking on the street.
Zoe, would be hard to discourage people from parking on street since it is legal, side lot does feel a bit separate from store.
Mark, concerned about parking area.
Zoe, plenty of space to pull in, park, turn around, and pull out onto the street nose first.
Hal, this drawing has no scale so we have no reference if these cars would fit and be able to pull in and out, want to ensure safe ingress and egress, don’t want unsafe parking conditions that may cause an accident, don’t think this set up shown on drawing is realistic.
Zoe, how much parking would really be required, think 2 parking spaces would be sufficient, along with legal street parking.
Mark, would feel more comfortable with this area cleared out of trees and stuff, to be clear for parking.
Hal, safest way in and out for parking so people can park nose in, need enough space for people to pull in and out and be visible.
Zoe, have done lots of work on the building so far.
Hal, one thing we have been trying to promote is non glare lighting, light pollution, suggestion would like you to agree to not use flood lights, would prefer glare free shielded lights and you would have to check on the sign ordinance before reusing the old sign,
Hal, make a motion to accept moving forward, with parking available on the side lot and agree to use glare free lighting and check in on the sign when ready to move forward, Rona second, all in favor.
• Discussion on public notice process
Rona, we have been paying for them but typically the applicant pays, who should be paying for the public notices and certified mailing, other boards do charge applicant for that.
Hal, we have written into special permit to be able to have applicant reimburse for engineers or other needed reviews.
Mark, no specific stuff with planning board rules on that in the bylaws, going forward there we should look at how other towns do it and make clear what planning board does, might want to take a look at website and make sure all necessary information is on there.
Rona, might want to look at updating it.
• Any other business old or new.
Dianna, last year she put forward an article for town meeting for town to hire professional to asses properties and building town owns, PB had received quote from BPRC for cost for updating master plan and it was around the same cost that she proposed, town has erbie site, library looking for a site, historical commission has ideas for a museum, many segments that have needs for town buildings and properties, it seems town is doing things in isolation and there is no overall planning for all buildings in town to look at best use and best value for each building and property.
The money the town is spending on plans for a site they likely do not have funds to actually build.
Center of town is officially a historic district, we are getting signs, personal opinion is the selectboard works hard but is not qualified to assess these buildings and properties,
Planning board and other boards work hard and selectboard is not acting on the boards needs and work they have done.
It’s time for us to say we have a position here and we should be looking at these things, spoke with Terry Gould the other day and she said the master plan doesn’t need to be updated, which we disagree with and want the planning board to bring up this issue again on the master plan and town building/property evaluations, she can do the work to get signatures just wants the planning board to stand behind it.
Want to see the town be more vibrant than it is, vision for the town, community offices for people who work from home, there are lots of ideas on what can be done with the town resources to make the town vibrant and healthy, would like to see the planning board request to hire a professional to do this work and explain why it is necessary, BRPC will have suggestions who to hire.
Separate issue, she wants the town to become part of the Community preservation act, there will be a zoom meeting on this and an article in observer.
Mark, median income $101,000 for Otis residents based on the article on the Community Preservation Act in the Otis Observer, where is this figure, Census.
Dianna, working to get the word out, believes it is good for the town.
Hal, personally agree with you on the CPA because its money for the town, we proposed it years ago and the selectman at the time did not support it, and we missed out on that opportunity for money.
Mark, timing of that right now is not ideal due to assessment going up.
Dianna, always a reason to not bring it up but main reason for being here is the request for new master plan and assessment of town properties and buildings.
Hal, planning boards job is to maintain and manage a master plan, select board is not talking to planning board and it is by statute the planning boards responsibility, state says master plan should be updated every 5 years.
Rona, we are past point to just amend plan and we need to do a new master plan.
Mark, we talked about master plan last year, and BRPC said there is no time period you are mandated to update plan, and that grant funding should not be jeopardized by not updating your master plan.
Dianna, now is the time to do this before the town acts on any of these properties so we have a plan first, hope you will consider having a discussion with select board on looking at this.
Hal, agree we need a master plan and public needs to be involved in these things.
Mark, embarrassment the police dept is in a closet.
Hal, it is our statutory duty as the planning board to have a master plan.
Mark, why was some of this not addressed when the master plan was originally written.
Hal, we were expecting to do an update on the plan in future and can’t do everything at once it takes a lot of time and resources, we were always planning to build on the master plan we have, should be asking for money in the budget to do this.
Rona, yes there is a master plan, bigger issue is select board is not listening/following what we are doing here, we can have the best written master plan but if the select board is not working with planning and following what we work on it doesn’t matter.
Dianna, used to have an all boards meeting, now there is no communication between boards and the selectboard is not allowing public to bring up new business in meetings.
Mark, understand frustration but we have to find a way to work with the selectboard, not easy but maybe there is things we can work on that the selectboard is in support of,
Select board makes a lot of executive decisions, planning board does not,
How do we move forward, fighting with select board isn’t going to work.
Hal, not trying to fight them but need to do something about it, planning board is responsible for these things by statute and select board isn.t following that.
Mark, how do we move forward?
Hal, selectboard is looking to spend town public money on police dept, but did the people town ask for this did they bring this to the public to decide on this?
Dianna, suggestion on master plan, time to update buildings and properties.
Zoe, as an outsider question on playground at town beach, beach isn’t open year round, who planned that, who designed skate park can see a lot of work went into planning that
Dianna, this area was designed in pieces, no planning or thought on overall needs. Ask that the planning board put forth a request that the selectboard sponsor plan for building use and reuse.
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Other discussion on sending Christina, Planning Board Clerk to Massachusetts Land Conservation Conference at UMass.
Rona motion to support funding for Christina to go to Massachusetts land conservation conference a, Hal second, all in favor.
• Mark motion to adjourn 9:00 PM. Rona Second. All in favor.