2009-07-20 Community Planning and Development Commission Minutes

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Town of Reading 16 Lowell Street Reading, MA 01867-2683 Phone: 751-942-6612 Fax: 751-942-9071 Email: ckowalski@ci.reading.ma.us RECEIVED READING. 111AS. 2010 JAN 1 A q° 01b, Community Planning and Development Commission CPDC MINUTES Meeting Dated: July 2 , 2009 Location: Selectmen's Meeting Room, Town=Hall Time: 7:30 PM Members Present: Nicholas S fina (NS, N), Chairman; John Weston (JW), Secretary, J seph Patterson x, . (JP), Claire Paradiso (CP), an David Tuttle (DT) _ - Associate Members Present: George Katsoufis (GK) Also Present: Carol Kowalski (CK), Town Planner; Abigail McCabe (AM), Staff Planner; and. Michael Schloth, Recording Secretary. Charles Eisenberg of Housing Partners, Inc. There being a quorum the Chair called. the meeting to order at 7:35 PM. DT reported he had attended a meeting at the Town Hall the previous Friday the topic of which was possible modifications to the by-law sections on voluntary demolition (ie tear-downs). The result of the meeting was Town Counsel agreed to draft modifications to by-law section 63.17 for the Board of Selectmen's review. If the Selectmen approve the modifications, it is anticipated they would initiate an article recommending the modifications to Fall 2009 Town Meeting. The CPDC would be responsible for holding a public hearing on such an article. Downtown Smart Growth 40R District Work Session: Design Guidelines Further revisions were made to the guidelines. The most substantive being: • Changing the Floor Area Ratio (F.A.R) from 2.0 for all buildings uses to a two-tiered F.A.R based on use: 2.4 for other mixed-use or residential only buildings; 3.4 for mixed-use buildings with a commercial first-floor. • Accepting unanimously GK's suggestion of a new method for determining building step-backs (bounding buildings by a "maximum building envelope line" projecting diagonally from the boundary line to the uppermost roofline). The Board determined to deliver the guidelines to Mr. Eisenberg by Tuesday of next week (7/28/2009). Final changes, if any, would be made at next Monday's meeting (7/27/2009). To give the public an opportunity to review the guidelines before that meeting, the guidelines would be posted to the planning department's webpage as soon as possible. The meeting adjourned at 11:20 PM. These minutes were prepared by Michael Schloth and submitted to the CPDC on August 10, 2009; these minutes were approved by the CPDC on August 10, 2009. Page I of 1