HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-04-13 Community Planning and Development Commission MinutesTown of Reading
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Meeting Minutes
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Board - Committee - Commission - Council:
Community Planning and Development Commission
Date: 2015 -04 -13 Time: 7:30 PM
Building: Pleasant Street Senior Center
Address: 49 Pleasant Street
Purpose: General Business
Attendees: Members - Present:
Chairman Jeff Hansen
Nick Safina
Karen Goncalves -Dolan
Dave Tuttle
John Weston
Members - Not Present:
Others Present:
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Location: Community Room
Assistant Town Manager, Jean Delios
Administrative Assistant Caitlin Saunders
Marsie West, 3 Whitehall Lande
Ben Tafoya, 40 Oak Street
Meghan Young - Tafoya, 40 Oak Street
Vitginia Adams, 59 Azalea CIrcle
Gordon McIntoss, 14 Plymouth Road
David Zeek, 163 Pearl Street
John Sasso, 66 Richards Road
Dan Ensminger, 6 Oakland Road
Angela binda, 10 Orchard Park Drive
Kevin Sexton, 20 Emerson Street
Tony D'Arezzo, 130 John Street
Nancy Twomey, 23 California Road
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Caitlin Saunders
Topics of Discussion:
Mr. Hansen called the meeting to order.
He gave an update of the journey so far. He noted sections 2 -7 and 12 have been adopted
by Town Meeting and sections 1 and 8 -11 will be for future Town Meetings to come. He said
there is not enough time to get anything ready for April Town Meeting so they will shoot for
November. Mr. Hansen said they are going to hold off on pushing the sign regulations
through because of the Supreme Court case currently going on.
Section 1, the purpose of the bylaw, did not pass at Town Meeting in September 2014.
Town Meeting recommended they simplify and take a look at Lexington as a model. They
now drafted a new purpose using Lexington's words.
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Marsie West believes this new purpose is not simplified.
John Sasso mentioned scrapping the whole piece of 2A and come up with our own idea of
what zoning is.
Dave Tuttle commented that he thinks it's appropriate to leave that in there because Town
Meeting wants those words.
Dan Ensminger recommended adopting this and moving on.
Section 10.3 the Aquifer Protection District, they loosened the definition of impervious
surface.
Mr. Ensminger asked if this is required by the State or the MWRA.
Ms. Delios said yes the MWRA requires us to keep aquifers going.
Section 5.6.3 - Commercial Communication Structures, our current bylaw does not comply
with the Federal Telecommunications Act. The new bylaw will comply with the Act and will
be by a special permit to be issued by either CPDC or ZBA. Preferences can control where
the tower goes. A resident expressed her concern for health issues. Mr. Hansen said we
cannot regulate any health issues that the FCC already has rules about. He noted we have
been told we are not allowed to consider it a health concern.
Selectman Dan Ensminger suggested scrapping the Planned Unit Development (PUD) as it is
not needed and was created a long time ago.
Tony D'Arezzo commented that he is pretty sure Home Depot and Jordan's went in under
PUD -I and Calaresso's under PUD -B.
Ms. Delios noted the staff is working very hard on getting everything onto the Town's
website. She noted the building inspector has been working with them as well with things
like accessory apartments.
A comment was made about maybe adding a section of unintentional consequences about
zoning in the update at Town Meeting. Ms. Delios said we do not have much material on
that but we can look into it.
Mr. Hansen said the plan is to put the information in a more thorough and digestible manner
to Town Meeting and to mark significant changes to make sure nothing gets skipped over.
Ms. Delios noted the Building Inspector, planning staff and the Conservation Administrator
are working together but the Bylaw is still new and they are still learning.
The PUD and Planned Residential (PRD) were suggested to be taken as a group because
they are hard and it will be overwhelming to people.
Meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM
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