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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1984-04-05 Planning Board MinutesMinutes of the Meeting of April- 5, 1984. Chairman Rich called the meeting to order at 6:05 P.M. in Room 19, 52 Sanborn Street (the'Community Center) with Board members J. Shaw, C. Arthur, J. Wood and B. Mitchel present. Correspondence Board members reviewed and discussed a letter from Senator Brennan's office regarding zoning of "Family Day Care Centers" as home occu- pations. Board of Appeals notice regarding proposal by LaPierre School of Dance to rent space from Archdiocese of Boston in the school on Woburn Street was discussed. Board reviewed their letter to the -Board of Appealssent when Reading Gymnastics Academy sought to rent space in this same school. The Board still has the same general concerns regarding traffic, safety and neighborhood impact. Board of Public.Works has rescheduled the hearing on the division proposal of West Sh.eet until Wednesday:;. April -at 7:45 P.M. in the new library meeting room. Zoning Maps new sub_-_ 18th` The maps are ready for distribution and the reductions that have to be made. BPW's Mr. High will bring the mylars over next week, so that we can reproduce the number of copies.needed by other departments after the reductions have been made. Large 1-page map has to be outlined and colored coded for zoning purposes and presentation to other departments. The Board, upon a motion duly made and seconded, voted unanimously to have a high school student work at minimum starting salary and have said expenses paid out of the Board's expense budget. Outlining of, the.districts will have to.be done beforehand to assure that they will be correctly coded. Finanees. Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Board unanimously voted to pay bills payable in be amour of $161.11. Groundwater and Watershed Protection At 6:30 P.M.; Conservation Administrator Charles Costello met with the Board to discuss the current problems facing the Town concerning their water supply. Mr. Costello stated that the Conservation Commission is' very concerned about the contaminants getting into the water supply. In his overview, Mr. Costello presented Bedford's problems idith their water supply and related their problems with. what might face Reading if the town is not careful. The major Pr^blem lies in the fact that there is currently a large trucking company to the north of Reading's water supply, which is in North Reading and governed by their regulations. There is a-proposal to develop more land with 7 executive office buildings. North Reading has rezoned this land for industrial use and has moved their water Page 2 4/5/84 supply away from this area and.-recurrently using rock wells. Rock wells are dug in bedrock and have a very slow,recharge and are very susceptible to contaminants. DEQE is studying these wells and they may not meet the strict DEQE standards. Reading's wells pull their groundwater from the North Reading side of the well fields, and, in the summer, will even draw some water off the Ipswich River. Because of these reasons, we must be careful to protect the development which occurs on the North - Reading Reading site. Currently, there is a trucking firm that hash 0-50 regularly parked trucks, which have their normal cleaning and maintenance (caustics oils, etc.) done on siteriEeventually' finds j~ way into the_towri =water supply. With the .prospect of 7 executive office buildings with--65;000 gallons of septi&,_, each day, the Conservation Commission is gravely concerned. The BPW and Conservation have been working with North Reading and also DEQE and Army Corps of Engineers. In order to protect not only this site, but also the only other possible area within the Town for future well sites, Bare Meadow, which feeds directly off the Great Cedar Swamp, an interdepart- mental study committee should be formed. On this committee should be a representative from the Board of Health, FinCom, BPW, Fire Chief, Planning Board and Conservation Commission as well as some interested citizens. Help can be obtained from DEQE and MAPC for assistance in such a project. Senate bill S-1820 seeks to estab- lish a State Water Management Commission because the towns in the Commonwealth have failed to protect their water supplies. Reading must protect the water supplies within their.boundaries. There will be no help from outside sources: the Quabbin Reservoir. is suffering from acid rain contamination;. MDC hasn't enough water to supply.to the towns already within their district. The only other major source of water is in Plymouth. The State is trying to obtain rites to this source, but Plymouth isn't willing to .relinquish those rights. . The town must.realize that water conservation and water protection go hand-in-hand. Revay wells are closed because--of salt contamin- ation. These wells produced 1.5 million gallons of water which equals on the open market a commodity which would sell for about $723,000/per year. If water conservation measures are implemented throughout the town, the town will ;,save money for wastewater treat- ment that it has to pay to MDC. As more development within town takes place, the greater the stress on the current wells to supply the water needed. Reading's water is high in manganese, iron and natural and unnatural salt. In the summer, when more water is used, the bottom deposits are brought up into the water supply. In order to set up a working well, general costs would be in the $250,000 range. The only place within the Town to find new wells would be _in the Bare Meadow area, where °thi ~`°-a ~_.:i potential well site tiat,% has been located. Mr. Costello thanked the Board for their input and response to his overview. He asked that the Board not support any attempt to have Page 3 4/5/84 the BPW garage moved to the Haverhill Street Nike Site)so that the town will protect the only other source of water within its boundaries:: The Board thanked Mr. Costello and would be happy to meet with him again after Town Meeting to start planning.the formation of a Groundwater Protection Study Committee. At 7:35 P.M., the Board welcomed Mr. John Connolly, attorney for 128 Sales, and Mr. Thomas McManus, Jr. to-discuss the sale of a-portion of land adjacent to land currently owned :by them next to the Dump Site on John Street. Mr. Connolly presented a brief to the Board and reviewed the past requests presented to Town Meeting on behalf of the.McManus family. In 1980, when Town Meeting voted to authorize the Selectment to sell a '.'hockey stick" portion of this land to McManus for full market value,. a proposal was presented by McManus to Subaru for their approval. Subaru did not like their proposal and they ire subsequently went to Volvo and obtained approval to build and self as a Volvo franchiser. In order to permit an::efficiently functioning operation, they request another piece of land. In so doing, they will be able to build the building away from the roadway, giving better site distance to the Dump Site, and allowing better manueverability for servicing and maintenance in the Volvo building. The Board questioned Mr. McManus on his last presentation to Town Meeting in which he sought this land. Mr. McManus stated that he`~_A,.(V1 g was not able to neg otate a deal with Subaru and the ' they have-since S r`$ SaL been :aartho~-a=a-ec-~ Volvi as a franchised dealer. In order to meet the high standards, inciuding maintenance and servicing of the Volvos sold, they would like to buy more land and afford greater safety and manueverability on the site. If they are not successful in their attempt to purchase more land, they still will build a Volvo dealership building which will be closer to the street and not as attractive as it could beCbecause of the particular lot configuration as it currently exists. Also, the new Mass. Super Fund Lien.demands that any site which was formerly a land fill must be free from any hazardous waste or cleaned up before they can get financing from a bank. The current site they are seeking to buy has between 9-15 feet of compacted refuse with unstable soil conditions underneath. The cost to construct on such a piece of land is considerable, - a cost that will have to be borne by any future developer. Now there is a buyer and this land would eventually yield about $6700 in taxes to the Town, Mr. Connolly stated.. Board asked about long term lease for this parcel. Mr.,McManus was ,,not disposed to such an arrangement. At 8 P.M., the Board thanked Mr. Connolly and Mr. McManus for their presentation.:.on the subject matter presented as Article 43 on the 1984 Annual Town Meeting Warrant. Page 4 .4/5/84 Personnel Selectman O'Brien called Ms. Rich to ask about consolidating the Building Inspector's assistant's position with the Planning Board staff position. This would be a full-time job as proposed by Mrs. O'Brien. Where both offices deal with zoning matters, the Selectmen felt that this would be a wise choice for consolidating personnel. Ms. Rich spoke with Ms. Plansky about such an arrange- ment. Ms. Plansky. is .not available for -full--time employment because of family commitments. Some discussion took place about an arrange- ment from 8:30-3 P.M. After Ms. Rich heard from.Mrs. O'Brien, the Building Inspector and Conservation Commission were informed but all 3.offices: Planning, Conservation.and.Building Inspector, were to be com- bined in the Children's Room in the Old Library building with 1 staff po.sition.. Ms. Plansky withdrew her offer to consolidate with any other position and asked that she work only for the Planning Board. She felt that consolidation would detract from any meaningful work that she could do for the Planning Board and typing and clerical work would be all that would be possible.. As it is now,-extra hours.without pay are needed to complete the work of the Planning Board. With the constant 'interruptions of the other offices, less effwi i nt work and less work would-be."~JoQ:- ,1h such a position, paced-under the control of the Selectmen, new responsibilities could be added or withdrawn. Ms. Plansky felt that she did not want to put herself in:.that position. She asked the Board not to consider what she wanted when they voted whether or not to consolidate with other Town Boards, but merely to vote the best arrangements for the Planning Board. Upon a motion duly.made and seconded, the Board by a vote of 0-4-0 defeated the motion to combine departments with any other Town Boards using their staff person. The Board felt that the Planning Board's request to FinCom should stand, in which they request more hours for their.staff position, so that the Planning Board's work can be accomplished. By combining staff with other offices, the. Planning Board would lose the staff support they need to function efficiently and effectively. There being no further business before the Board, it was unanimously voted to adjourn at 8:05 P.M. Next meeting will be on Thursday, April 12th at 6.P.M. in the High Schbol,_the room.to be arranged. Respectfully submitted, Charles R. Arthur, Jr., Clerk