Community Development Board

Approved by the Community Development Board 03/15/2023 CITY OF METHUEN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BOARD Wednesday, May 11, 2022 6:30 P.M. VIA ZOOM WEB CONFERENCE MINUTES 1) Call to Order of Regular Meeting. Vice Chairman Michael Comei called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm and read the following notice into the record: Pursuant to Chapter 22 of the Acts of 2022, this meeting/public hearing will be conducted via remote means. For this meeting, members of the public who wish to watch the meeting may do so on their televisions by turning to Comcast Xfinity Channel 8 or Verizon FiOS Channel 32 or view on a computer or cell phone via LIVE Stream on https://www.methuentv.org/methuen-government-tv-live-stream/ No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, and public participation in any public hearing conducted during this meeting shall be by remote means only. If the public would like to participate in the public hearing, please email your questions/comments by noon on the meeting day to kbcolwell@ci.methuen.ma.us. The questions/comments will be read during the proceedings and responded to accordingly. Members of the public who wish to speak during the public hearing can register here: https://www.methuentv.org/govmeet/ by noon on the meeting day. 2) Roll Call. Members in Attendance Stephen DeFeo, Chairman Absent Michael Comei, Secretary Present Gisette Beshara Present Brian Boes, member Present Ronald Hatem, member Present Neal Hunter, member Absent Heather Plunkett, member Present Others in Attendance Kathleen Colwell, Director of Planning Nancy Hudson, Community Development Confidential Secretary Petitioners and Representatives of Petitioners 3) Acceptance of the Minutes. a) April 13, 2022 MOTION: Gisette Beshara made a motion to table the Minutes of April 13, 2022, May 11, 2022, and June 8, 2022. 1 Filed in the Office of the City Clerk 03/16/2023  Approved by the Community Development Board 03/15/2023 SECOND: Heather Plunkett DISCUSSION: None VOTE: UNANIMOUS Roll Call Stephen DeFeo Absent Michael Comei Yes Gisette Beshara Yes Brian Boes Yes Ronald Hatem Yes Neal Hunter Absent Heather Plunkett Yes 4) Consent Agenda. For the record, there was nothing on the Consent Agenda. 5) Zoning Issues: For the record, there were no Zoning Issues. 6) Form A Plans. For the record, there were no Form A Plans. 7) 6:30 PM Public Hearing: 501 & 600 Griffin Brook Drive- Site Plan Approval Vice Chairman, Michael Comei read the legal notice into the record. Sean Smith of R. J. Kelly Company told the Board that he is very excited about their investment in Methuen and he’s proud of the plan that the team has put together. Tonight they will give an overview of the plan, they will discuss traffic, the architecture and landscape architecture. Scott Cameron, engineer for the applicant, presented the plan to the Board. EXITING CONDITIONS The site is located off of Route 110, which is Lowell Street. Griffin Brook Drive intersects with Lowell Street just south of Griffin Brook. Griffin Brook Drive is a lengthy road that ends at the site’s frontage. Surrounding the site is the Hickory Hill golf course to the North, undeveloped woodland to the west and south, and the rest of the developed industrial park. There aren’t any direct residential abutters, it’s well over 1000 feet before you get to the nearest residential use. They conducted a detailed topographic and boundary survey of the entire property which consists of 22 acres. Through that process they identified the existing constructed conditions of the site. The building as you see it today was permitted and built in 1995 – 1996. It was actually permitted to be built out to the parcel where they are looking to put the building today, however they never built that phase of the project. Griffin Brook 2 Filed in the Office of the City Clerk 03/16/2023  Approved by the Community Development Board 03/15/2023 Drive ends in a cul de sac that comes into a shared driveway between the two properties that exists today, with access to 401 Griffin Brook Drive and 501 Griffin Brook Drive, which is their existing building. That building is 60,000 sf in footprint area and there is also a second level mezzanine. The property is serviced by two parking areas around the western and southern area of the building. In the back of the building there are some loading docks, a dumpster, generators, transformers, and other equipment. On the west side of the building, which is the front of the building, is some parking, stormwater management infrastructure that will treat all of the stormwater that runs off of the parking area in the front. In front of that, the edge of the clearing, is mowed grass and some scattered trees. The rear of the property is wooded and a wetland is located to the west that ends at an offsite double culvert. There is another separate wetland system to the north and east. Soil testing showed that the soil is a sandy soil with a table of bedrock that is deep down. They were before the Conservation Commission last summer and fall and received an Order of Resource Area and Delineation. There is a small piece of riverfront area that comes into the area but it has very little impact on the project they are proposing to develop. PROPOSED SITE PLAN A Height variance was received from the Zoning Board of Appeals, otherwise the proposed building fully complies with the dimensional requirements of zoning. They received a variance for a height of 67 feet. Zoning allows for 45 feet. The proposed building itself is 44 feet. The variance was required because zoning defines height by the vertical measurement of the frontage of the property at the street to the top of the highest point of the roof. In this case there is approximately 20 feet of grade change from the driveway at Griffin Brook Drive to where they start the slab for the proposed building. They are actually complying with zoning around the grade of the building itself but from the literal interpretation of the zoning definition, a variance was needed. The development will consist of a new 101,000 square foot detached light industrial use building. The orientation is not square to the existing building to better fit with the topography and shape of the property. They will gain access to the building by removing a section of the existing parking on the westerly side of the property and construct a new 28 foot driveway to be used by trucks and passenger vehicles. The truck traffic will come back to a turnaround area that is designed for a 67 foot trailer to the loading docks which are recessed 15 feet into the building so they are weather protected. Employees and customers would enter the parking area in front of the building. They are also proposing a loading facility in the rear of the property with recessed loading docks and a turnaround for the 67 foot trucks. They have included a provision to get a fire truck around the entire perimeter of the building. It would consist of compacted crushed stone. The site as it currently stands, has two parcels. At the completion of the Site Plan Approval process, they have an ANR Plan ready to submit which would consolidate the two parcels into one. To evaluate the parking requirements, they speculated the uses of light industrial use, research and development, and warehouse use. The analysis gave them 331 parking spaces, which they believe to be a conservative estimate. This is adequate parking for zoning and for what the market demands. LANDSCAPING Michael Radner, the landscape architect representing the applicant discussed the planting plan and the lighting plan. This plan meets all of the requirements in terms of number of trees per square footage for the parking lot. It meets the 5% of interior landscape space in both the existing and the proposed parking lots. They looked at the site as a whole to make the planting requirements work. There are both existing and proposed trees on the plan. The 3 Filed in the Office of the City Clerk 03/16/2023  Approved by the Community Development Board 03/15/2023 general approach is to plant the trees in the islands to provide as much shade as possible in the parking areas. Lawn areas are provided around the buildings. The stormwater detention areas will have a seeded erosion control mix that is native. Acting Chair, Michael Comei called a five minute recess. The meeting was called back to order at 7:05 pm. TRAFFIC Kenneth Cram, traffic engineer for the applicant reviewed the access impact and traffic study with the Board. The study was performed in accordance with the Mass DOT guidelines for preparation of traffic impact assessments. They looked at the roadway geometry and traffic control for several intersections, the key intersection being Route 110 Lowell Street and Griffin Brook Drive. The also looked at the next intersection to the west, Lowell Boulevard and Wheeler Street, and because of the confluence of the geometry, they looked at the intersection of Griffin Brook Drive and the driveway of 400 Griffin Brook Drive, which is just south of the combined entranceway of this project. They looked at existing conditions, future 2029 no build conditions without this project, and the future 2029 build conditions with this project. They got new counts and seasonally adjusted them if necessary, they adjusted them to account for the current Covid conditions, and they projected out to the future based on a growth rate provided by the Central Transportation Planning staff, which was about ½% compounded annually. Then they figured out what this project’s traffic would be and added it on to the study area. They found that outside the study area there is a 13-55 bidirectional vehicles, which on average over the course of the peak hours is basically one additional vehicle every minute during those peak hours. From the analysis performed for the existing conditions, for the signalized and unsignalized intersection, there was no change in level of service from no build to build with the project. Mr. Cram noted that there are two components to this project: an industrial component and a warehouse component. They used the trip generation information compiled by the Institute of Transportation Engineers in the latest edition of the trip generation manual. It shows that on a daily basis, this project will generate approximately 370 vehicle trips. They recommend that the two access way approaches to Griffin Brook Drive be under Stop sign control and that any proposed vegetation at the site access be low growth to not impede sight lines. They also suggested a Transportation Demand Management program to reduce the overall traffic impact by hiring a Transportation Coordinator and by promoting alternative transportation modes. STORM WATER Scott Cameron stated that they look at the site as a combination of a new development with the expansion and also a redevelopment, and there’s some overlap between the two. When you come into the site the parking area has some existing closed drainage, typical catch basins, pipes and manholes. There are no mitigation systems or retention basins to hold back the water, but they do provide treatment and there’s a really good treatment system already in place, which gets the water just before it discharges out to the wetland. They will be keeping that there and continue to use it. They will take this opportunity to retrofit a portion of the parking area by adding in a small retention basin in the new island at the entrance. That will provide mitigation for the storm water runoff for the existing parking area. The bulk of the runoff by the loading docks and loading area in the front of the new building will be collected in catch basins, directed through treatment systems to a large chamber system under the pavement and then back into the ground. The roof runoff will be collected in a surface retention basin that will be seeded with a wetland mix. In the back of the building there will 4 Filed in the Office of the City Clerk 03/16/2023  Approved by the Community Development Board 03/15/2023 be a long linear pipe and stone system to manage the runoff only from the access drive. It will be collected in area drains and infiltrated through a control structure. In this area they are doing more mitigation and groundwater recharge. A new retention basin will take care of the new loading dock area as well as a portion of the existing parking area to provide groundwater recharge and mitigation of the runoff. They are able to hold and recharge close to the 100 year storm volume on the site. They are taking advantage of the well drained soil on the site. They will not be increasing the post development rate of runoff at any of the design points, thereby not creating any downstream flooding to adjacent properties. They will be working through the comment letters from TEC and the City Engineer, UTILITIES There is an existing water main that feeds the existing building. They are proposing to T off of that existing main and bring it into the site. This will provide the fire supply and domestic water supply. At the City Engineering Department request, they are also adding an additional fire hydrant at the front of the building. They will be bringing the sewer out, parallel with that and tying into an existing sewer main. It was actually previously built and extended out in anticipation of the next phase of the project. Gas and electric will be brought down the driveway into the site. They have reserved a location for a transformer, with room for additional transformers. The buildings are all designed for solar readiness. It’s not part of the plan now, but it could be added on later. There is also readiness for electric vehicle charging stations. ARCHITECTURE Greg Smith, architect for the project, spoke about the design of the building. The main focal point of the building is the elevation facing the parking lot. As an industrial building, mainly warehouse/ industrial type use, what they are proposing on the building are vertical panels with an insulated metal panel so that it is a highly energy efficient building system. It would be applied all the way around the building. The main entrance is highlighted with an accent entry area and some windows in the front for office space. The building is designed to be able to have two tenants or a single tenant. Both tenants would enter into a common vestibule and go left or right to their area. The truck parking on the left is associated with one potential tenant and there is an area on the east side for trucks and loading for the second tenant. The building height from the finished floor is approximately 43 feet to the grade, and the average grade is 45 feet, which is what they got the variance for. The panels will be painted a color with some banding at the top and the bottom. The north elevation faces the golf course and they are not proposing any articulation on that side other than the lighting on the building. The west elevation, which faces vegetation, also does not have any proposed articulation. Lighting would be located on the sidewalk, and entrances. The recessed area on the loading dock provides cover for weather and provides extra turnaround space. Scott Cameron mentioned that at the back face of the building there is about 100 feet of woodland that is protected wetland or protected wetland buffer zone that they can’t touch, but they will be preserving a fifty foot buffer around all of the wetlands around the property all the way down closer to the entrance, where they will be restoring it. It’s only at the very front of the site where they have no way of avoiding it, that they are closer to the wetland area, but still providing a benefit. The wooded buffer at the back will remain and provide really good screening against the golf course, and they are providing a wooded buffer along the sideline to the west. They will only be covering 35% of the property with building or pavement, which is the limit in the Zoning Ordinance. A large, existing wetland area is 5 Filed in the Office of the City Clerk 03/16/2023  Approved by the Community Development Board 03/15/2023 located to the south, but on the other side of that is more upland that could potentially be built in the future. They are currently working through the Engineering Department and TEC comments. They will also be filing their Notice of Intent application with the Conservation Commission to appear at their June meeting. Gisette Beshara asked what type of business would be occupying the building. Mr. Cameron responded that it was being built on a speculative basis. There is a lot of demand in the market for this type of space. They designed it to capture the broadest audience of potential tenants. Right now it’s designed to partition into three spaces, but one tenant could occupy the entire building. The use and parking calculations would have to be approved by the Building Department. Acting Chairman Michael Comei opened the public hearing to comment from the public. For the record, nobody spoke in favor or in opposition. Kathleen Colwell informed the Board that she did not receive any email comments on the project. Acting Chairman Michael Comei recommended tabling action on this item until the June 8th meeting. MOTION: Gisette Beshara so moved. SECOND: Ronald Hatem DISCUSSION: None VOTE: UNANIMOUS Roll Call Stephen DeFeo Absent Michael Comei Yes Gisette Beshara Yes Brian Boes Yes Ronald Hatem Yes Neal Hunter Absent Heather Plunkett Yes 8) 7:00 PM Public Hearing: 90 Pleasant Valley Street- Site Plan Approval /Special Permit for a Drive-through/Special Permit for a Drive-through to operate after midnight Acting Chairman Michael Comei read the legal notice into the record. Eric Dubrule, of Bohler Engineering, representative of the applicant, explained that they were proposing a Raising Cane’s Chicken Finger restaurant Site Plan with Special Permits for a drive through as well as hours of operation after midnight. They are seeking hours of operation that are consistent with the other businesses in the nearby shopping center, which 6 Filed in the Office of the City Clerk 03/16/2023  Approved by the Community Development Board 03/15/2023 are until 1:00 am Sunday through Thursday and until 2:00 am Friday and Saturday, which is pared back from their normal hours, in consideration of the Zoning Ordinance. Midnight is what is allowed by right. Adam Caracce, the Senior Property Development Manager for Raising Cane’s, gave a background on Raising Cane’s, their operation, and their five core philanthropies. Mr. Caracci displayed a rendering of the building, showing the typical architecture. They use quality materials, real brick, a nice patio on the front with festoon lights, that will be heated or cooled appropriate to the season. Additionally, they have modest signage and try to make the look appealing to the community. The building is an elevated product, because they sell an elevated product. Every restaurant is company run and locally staffed with people within the community. Eric Dubrule went over the Site Plan. Raising Cane’s is proposing to locate in the Loop shopping plaza in an area that is currently a paved parking lot with a handful of endcap landscaped islands. The site is accessed by two existing site driveways from Pleasant Valley street with a main plaza drive that runs in front of the proposed restaurant. They have maintained the existing parking that was already in front of the site, consistent with how the plaza is already set up. The building is about 3,200 square feet and the drive through will be located at the rear of the building. They are compliant with parking for the overall shopping center and sufficient parking in front for their business. There is plenty of additional parking throughout the shopping center and plenty of connectivity for pedestrians to access the restaurant. They will be connecting a sidewalk and crosswalk with ramps to the existing plaza connection. An existing sidewalk runs the full length of the main plaza drive in front of the restaurant. There are existing crosswalks on that drive; one right in front of the property and one further down, and another meandering sidewalk that eventually connects the rest of the plaza. Adam Caracce explained the drive through operation. The key thing is that because they have the focused menu, they are able to get people through the drive through with a much quicker speed of service than is typical at other restaurants. The average speed of service is 2 ½ minutes from the time of the order to the time of leaving the drive through, which is about one car every 30 seconds from each of the two lanes. They are using a dual drive through. There are two scenarios that can be utilized to maximize queueing for peak times like lunch and dinner, at which time they would have both lanes open. The traditional menu board with speaker, a pay window and pick up window are not used during those peak rushes. Orders are taken by tablet by crew members that are positioned in the drive through in the hashed crosswalks. There is a crosswalk up to the pick up window so that food can be passed out the window to crew members and then passed along to the cars. Crew members take orders and payment via tablet and are actively walking forward to motion to the customer to pull forward. There is a canopy over the drive through that has heaters and misters and fans for the different seasons so that the crew members are not out in the elements the entire time. They rotate the crew members out every 30 minutes, they will be wearing yellow safety vests, and they are trained in how to work in the drive through in a safe manner. During normal hours the traditional menu board, pay window and pick up window will be open and functioning as they would at any other restaurant. There are two lanes up to the two menu boards and merges into one lane after the menu boards and then goes to the pay and pick up windows. The menu boards only take one order at a time so that’s how the cars know to go forward. Mr. Caracce also mentioned that there are strategic cameras focused on the 7 Filed in the Office of the City Clerk 03/16/2023  Approved by the Community Development Board 03/15/2023 entrances, and the drive throughs. They know how many people are coming on the lot, they know an average order for chicken fingers, so that before one orders, they can drop the chicken fingers and French fries in the fryer to make sure the food is hot and fresh when you get the food. Mr. Dubrule explained that all of the infrastructure for utilities and drainage is already existing on site directly in front of the building. Gas, electric, sewer, and water are all coming straight out and connecting to the existing infrastructure. For drainage, they are collecting some of the storm water through some storm water quality units. There are also some deep sump hooded catch basins. Those are all being treated and outfalling where the rest of the plaza drainage is going today, which is a drainage basin just south of the building. They are infiltrating some of the roof runoff to mitigate some peak flows and get some infiltration. Overall it’s an improvement based on what they are doing now. Raising Cane’s likes a very dense landscaping plan. Every square inch of possible area has some plantings on it; there are hundreds of plantings on the plan. It's not just swaths of grass, it’s all shrubs. They will be maintaining some mature trees in the back and bringing color throughout the different seasons as well. They did receive peer review comments and staff comments and they will be able to make those changes and accept the suggested conditions of approval. In response to a question by Heather Plunkett, Mr. Caracce reiterated that they like to get involved with the community, including donating to schools. Mr. Comei asked for clarification that the canopy and outdoor seating would be on the east side of the building. Mr. Caracci confirmed that was correct. Kathleen Colwell stated that this is the last available space in the Loop as it was designed. She noted that there was a space that was found and carved out for a Starbucks so she doesn’t want to say that there won’t be any ability to have some out parcels here but this pad was part of the original design. She also noted that she has a recommendation from the Police Department that they are fine with the proposed hours of operation for Raising Cane’s. She noted that Raising Cane’s had originally requested to be open to 3:00 am and they scaled that back. Operating after midnight is one of the Special Permits this applicant is requesting. She listed the comments TEC recommended be incorporated into a decision. Some of these will be prior to building permit issuance and some will be prior to plan endorsement. • The dumpster would only be serviced during non-business hours because of the tight truck turning radius to access it. • Coordinating with Margarita’s about the location of their dumpster, which is a landlord issue. • A test pit being excavated within the footprint of the proposed infiltration system to be observed by a Mass soil evaluator prior to issuance of the building permit • Assessing the sizing calculations for the proposed water quality units In response to a memo from the Engineering Department dated May 9, 2022 we would be looking for clarity on the interplay between Margarita’s site and this site, clarity on a handicapped ramp and clarity on the location of the water main and water connection gate, grease trap sizing as well as other water, sewer and drain comments. 8 Filed in the Office of the City Clerk 03/16/2023  Approved by the Community Development Board 03/15/2023 Kathleen Colwell pointed out for the record that the Zoning Board did grant a Special Permit for a restaurant at their April 27, 2022 meeting. Acting Chairman Michael Comei opened the floor for public comment. Kathleen Colwell noted that there were no meeting attendees, and she did not receive any emails or correspondence from the public. Acting Chairman Michael Comei entertained a motion to close the public hearing. MOTION: Brian Boes so moved. SECOND: Heather Plunkett DISCUSSION: None VOTE: UNANIMOUS Roll Call Stephen DeFeo Absent Michael Comei Yes Gisette Beshara Yes Brian Boes Yes Ronald Hatem Yes Neal Hunter Absent Heather Plunkett Yes Acting Chairman Michael Comei entertained a motion for a Special Permit for a Drive Through window. MOTION: Gisette Beshara moved to approve the drive through window for Raising Cane’s Restaurant. SECOND: Heather Plunkett DISCUSSION: None VOTE: UNANIMOUS Roll Call Stephen DeFeo Absent Michael Comei Yes Gisette Beshara Yes Brian Boes Yes Ronald Hatem Yes Neal Hunter Absent Heather Plunkett Yes 9 Filed in the Office of the City Clerk 03/16/2023  Approved by the Community Development Board 03/15/2023 Vice Chairman Michael Comei entertained a motion to approve the proposed hours of operation for the drive through window, which are 9:00 am – 1:00 am Sunday through Thursday and 9:00 am – 2:00 am Saturday and Sunday. MOTION: Brian Boes so moved. SECOND: Heather Plunkett DISCUSSION: None VOTE: UNANIMOUS Roll Call Stephen DeFeo Absent Michael Comei Yes Gisette Beshara Yes Brian Boes Yes Ronald Hatem Yes Neal Hunter Absent Heather Plunkett Yes Acting Chairman Michael Comei entertained a motion to approve the Site Plan with the conditions listed in the draft decision and with the comments form TEC and the Engineering Administrator incorporated. MOTION: Brian Boes so moved. SECOND: Heather Plunkett DISCUSSION: None VOTE: UNANIMOUS Roll Call Stephen DeFeo Absent Michael Comei Yes Gisette Beshara Yes Brian Boes Yes Ronald Hatem Yes Neal Hunter Absent Heather Plunkett Yes 9) New Business. a) Elections of officers Acting Chairman Michael Comei entertained a motion to table the election of officers until a full Board is present. MOTION: Brian Boes so moved. 10 Filed in the Office of the City Clerk 03/16/2023  Approved by the Community Development Board 03/15/2023 SECOND: Ronald Hatem DISCUSSION: None VOTE: UNANIMOUS Roll Call Stephen DeFeo Absent Michael Comei Yes Gisette Beshara Yes Brian Boes Yes Ronald Hatem Yes Neal Hunter Absent Heather Plunkett Yes b) Any other new business Kathleen Colwell stated that the plans for 134 Edgewood Avenue are ready for endorsement. MOTION: Brian Boes moved to authorize the Chairman to endorse the plans for 134 Edgewood Avenue on behalf of the Board. SECOND: Ronald Hatem DISCUSSION: None VOTE: UNANIMOUS Roll Call Stephen DeFeo Absent Michael Comei Yes Gisette Beshara Yes Brian Boes Yes Ronald Hatem Yes Neal Hunter Absent Heather Plunkett Yes Kathleen Colwell reminded the Board that at the last meeting the Board set the public hearing for 46 Old Ferry Road Site Plan Approval for June 8th at 6:30. We will also have the continued public hearing for 501 & 600 Griffin Brook Drive. There were no new applications. For the record, there was no additional new business. 10) Old Business. a) Liam’s Lane -street acceptance 11 Filed in the Office of the City Clerk 03/16/2023  Approved by the Community Development Board 03/15/2023 Kathleen Colwell noted that there were two remaining items for street acceptance – the guard rail issue and the stormwater running onto Howe Street. She met on site with Chairman DeFeo, Steve Gagnon from the Engineering Department, the developer Mark Salvo, and his engineer, Jim Hanley and they came up with a solution. An extra guardrail metal piece will be bolted on top of the existing guardrail piece which satisfies the Engineering Department issue. We are also looking for confirmation from the manufacturer of the head wall that the bolts won’t compromise the integrity or longevity of the head wall. For the stormwater issue, the catch basin to the left can be lowered and the pavement graded over to capture the runoff. The developer will come back to the Board with some calculations and the information the Board requires before we can send it for street acceptance. b) 23 Hampstead Street – Definitive Subdivision -plan endorsement Kathleen Colwell informed the Board that we just received another set of revised plans in the office to be reviewed. They are not ready for endorsement. c) Any other old business For the record there was no additional old business. 11) Correspondence. For the record there was no additional correspondence. 12) Adjournment. There being no further business before the Board, Chairman Stephen DeFeo entertained a motion to adjourn. MOTION: Brian Boes so moved. SECOND: Ronald Hatem VOTE: UNANIMOUS Roll Call Stephen DeFeo Absent Michael Comei Yes Gisette Beshara Yes Brian Boes Yes Ronald Hatem Yes Neal Hunter Absent Heather Plunkett Yes Chairman Stephen DeFeo adjourned the meeting at 8:10 pm. *** NEXT REGULAR MEETING Wednesday June 8, 2022 *** 12 Filed in the Office of the City Clerk 03/16/2023