SHIRLEY — The Planning Board considered the site plan for an office and equipment storage facility on Lancaster Road, while granting a special permit for the temporary vehicle storage there.
Robert France, of Senate Construction, met with the board in its last meeting of 2007, on Dec. 20, regarding site plan approval for lot 1A on Lancaster Road. France had previously been before the board seeking site plan approval for the site, only to her the board express concerns about sight distance for drivers on Lancaster road, and silt washing out of the site.
Since his earlier visit, the silt in question was found to originate elsewhere, and during the Dec. 20 meeting the board reviewed a revised site plan that improve the line of sight.
In a letter to the board, Public Works Director Joseph Lynch expressed concerns about the newly submitted plan, which he said had been revised by hand. France explained that he had been unable to get in touch with his engineer to make the plan revisions and had marked up the plans himself.
Associate board member John Rounds agreed with France’s revisions in principle but said the board simply could not accept the plans in their current form for town records.
Other concerns raised by Lynch’s letter and discussed by the board were snow removal, lack of notation for a dumpster on site and concerns about potential fuel storage. The board had also received a letter from a residential abutter to the site, voicing concerns that the property had been used to store “vehicles of questionable vintage” without a permit, which he wrote required repeated attempts by town authorities to have removed.
France told the board that he could revise the plan to show the dumpster location, and said there was no intention to store fuel on the site. As the abutter’s concerns about the site becoming a vehicle graveyard — a concern shared by the board — France said the plan was not for the approval of a junkyard and that the property owner makes no money when his vehicles are just sitting in a lot.
Board member William Carroll suggested that a fence on top of a retaining wall along the property line could be used to screen any vehicles from the neighbors. Board chairman Charles Colburn expressed reservations about such a fence, noting that he would want to hear from Lynch beforehand.
The board voted to continue the site plan public hearing to Jan. 17, at the request of the applicant, to allow time to provide updated plans and to hear from Lynch about adding a fence.
For the special permit request for temporary equipment storage on site, Rounds suggested that the board set a specific end date for the permit and stick to it. He then suggested April 1, as the request was to store equipment just over the winter, pending construction of the site. Once the building is constructed, the intention is for any equipment, mainly vehicles, to be stored inside.
The board voted to close the hearing and approve the special permit with the conditions that storage ends on April 1, that equipment not be moved at night between the hours of 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., that vehicles only be stored on the northwest potion of the property, and that no fuel and no dumpster would be stored on the site.
