Planning Board

************************************************************************************* TAUNTON PLANNING BOARD MINUTES Meeting held at 15 Summer Street, City Hall, in the Chester R. Martin Municipal Council Chambers ************************************************************************************* DATE: May 4, 2023 BOARD MEMBERS: Anthony Abreau, Chairman Michael Monteiro Bob Campbell John Reardon Manuel Spencer, Clerk Dennis I. Ackerman, Vice Chairman Brian Carr ADVISORS: Kevin Scanlon, City Planner Michael Patneaude, City Engineer __________________________________________________________________________ Roll Call: Carr, Reardon, Spencer, Monteiro, Ackerman and Abreau present. Meeting opens at 5:31 PM Dennis made motion to approve minutes of April 6, 2023 seconded by Manny. All in favor. Meet with Law Dept. on Ashleigh Estates I & II and Steve Drive – release covenant on remaining 2 lots, and send a recommendation to Municipal Council for street acceptance for Ashleigh Terrace, Manken Rd., Bryan Drive, and Steve Drive City Solicitor Matthew Costa was invited into the enclosure. The city has entered into an agreement with Steve Perry, M. Perry & Sons Construction relative to Steve Drive and Ashleigh Estates. There are 2 remaining lots under covenant in Ashleigh Estates. Steve Drive was built in 1970s and the street has never been accepted. Ashleigh Estates was approved in 1990 and phase 2 was approved in the early 2000. Those street needs repair and the board has previously called the bond. The City and the developer has come to an agreement and that action is subject to the Planning Board releasing the lots. The intent is to sell the lots and use those proceeds to finish roads in Ashleigh Estates. Atty. Costa also asks the Board to send a positive recommendation to the Municipal Council to accept streets as public ways. The City will restrict the lots to be sold with the restriction of having a single family only. Manny stated this Board has been dealing with the subdivision for some time and there is a lot of work that needs to be done. Atty. Costa stated if the streets are accepted they can use chapter 90 monies towards repairs. Back when the subdivision was done the process wasn’t as carefully followed as it is now. Atty. Costa stated he will talk to the City Engineer on the best path moving forward on fixing the streets. He stated the streets have to be accepted ways in order to use resources to fix. Atty. Costa stated this is all contingent on having a clean title to the lots. They would be do title exam to make sure it’s a valid corporation and good deed. Brian knows in the past the City has accepted streets to get Chapter 90 funds. Tony stated yes they have a pavement management program and a lot of work is being done. Mike agrees and asks what happens if, after you do title search he is not the owner? Atty. Costa answers the deal is off. The City will only go forward if deeds are good and the title work is completed, hold monies in escrow and the last step will be to accept streets. Dennis stated last year the City accepted over 70 streets. Tony stated since 2011 92 streets have been paved under the pavement management program and the administration has been gracious to give monies for paving. 1 Dennis made motion to release the remaining 2 lots in Ashleigh Estates, ,seconded by Mike All in favor. With the understanding of selling lots as single family lots ONLY, and using proceeds towards fixing streets in Ashleigh Estates (as this is where the money is from ) Dennis made motion to forward a positive recommendation to the Municipal Council for acceptance of Bryan Drive, Ashleigh Terrace, Steve Drive and Manken Road. Seconded by Mike. All in favor. E-5 Winthrop Lane – completion of subdivision – release of all 3 lots Dept. comments Outside consultant Field Eng., City Planner, Engineer, Board of Health, TMLP, Fire, and conservation commission. Mike made motion to release all 3 lots, find the subdivision to be complete, release all monies, seconded by Dennis. All in favor. Dennis made a motion to forward a positive recommendation to the Municipal Council for acceptance as a public street. Seconded by Brian. All in favor. Gracey Estates Subdivision – Need to assign an outside consultant - Chairman Abreau stated they should post $7,000 and shall be replenished back to a balance of 4,000 once it dips below 1,500. Manny made and seconded to assign Greenman Pedersen Inc. to be the outside consultant and have the applicant post $7,000 and replenish to a 4,000 balance once it dips below $1,500. Seconded by Brian. All in favor. Cont’d. Public Hearing - 515 Middleboro Avenue (Property .I .D. 96-135 & 96-134) - A Special Permit/Site Plan Review from Section 440 Attachment #2 of the Zoning Ordinance to allow a 3,320 s. f. auto repair shop with auto sales (58 vehicles) with an updated parking layout for customers, sales, and repair storage spaces and the installation of a drainage system in the Business District. – Request from applicant requesting a 3-month continuance. Manny asked if the business is open because they are not in compliance with their approval and it was answered yes. Tony stated the applicant’s engineer was working on locating the sewer out there. Motion made and seconded to grant 3 –month continuance. All in favor. CONTINUED TO AUGUST 3RD MEETING. Public Hearing – 16 Creeping Jenny Lane - Special Permit from Section 440 Attachment #1 of the Zoning Ordinance from Section 440 Attachment #1 of the Zoning Ordinance for an accessory Dwelling Unit (1,200 sf.) in a Rural Residential District. Hearing opens at 5:49 PM, Roll call: Ackerman, Reardon, Abreau, Spencer, Monteiro and Carr. Dept. comments were read from Board of health, Water, Engineer, City Planner, Conservation Commission, and Fire Dept. which were placed on file. Norman Chabot, Jr. was invited into the enclosure. He stated the accessory dwelling has been there for 32 years and didn’t know why the City didn’t have any record of it. So he’s here now to legalize it. His mom and step-dad lived there and now his children live there. It has never been rented. All the neighbors are aware of it. Dennis asked if he would be do any repairs to make it legal. He referenced the Board of Health letter and if they were to add another bedroom the septic system will need to be updated. Mr. Chabot stated he has 4 bedrooms and the septic system is based on 4 bedrooms. So there is no need to any upgrade. Public Input: no one in favor or opposed. Manny made and seconded by Brian to grant the Special Permit as presented: 2 Vote: 6 in Favor Anthony Abreau YES Dennis Ackerman YES John Reardon YES Manuel Spencer Jr YES Michael Monteiro YES Brian Carr YES Robert Campbell Absent Hearing closed at 5:53 PM Thrasher St .- Site Plan Review - letter from Atty. Correira – relative to condition #17 – Homeowner’s Association – Atty. Brianna Correira was invited into the enclosure. Dept. comments from City Engineer was read into the record. She wanted to ask the Board to consider having a sewer easement instead of creating a homeowner’s association for this project. The easement stays with the land if sold. She proposes having a recorded sewer easement establishing and governing the maintenance, operation and replacement of the sewer pump chamber and connected piing to the sewer main is required by others and the responsibility of the City doesn’t begin until the layout line of School Street. This is instead of establishing a homeowner’s Association. Dennis made motion to grant as presented per the City Engineer’s letter, seconded by Mike. All in favor. SPREDD – 2023-2024 – P.G Delegate - May 23, 2023 – May 22, 2024 Manny nominates Mike Monteiro, seconded by Tony. Mike accepts. All in favor. Brian stated he was informed that the former St. Mary’s School project has been experience some drainage problems. He stated someone brought to his attention that when there are heavy rains it drains towards the handicap ramp and it runs across Broadway towards Colonial Donuts. Discussion took place on having the developer work with the City Engineer on resolving the drainage issue. Dennis stated it’s the developer’s responsibility to certify the work being done is correct. It was suggested to contact the attorney, developer and City Engineer looks at it. Brian made motion to refer this matter to the City Engineer, developer and attorney to come up with resolution. Mike made motion to refer to the Zoning Enforcement officer the camper that is on 397 Winthrop St. (recently approved transport business) to make sure no one is living in the camper. There is a grill in front of camper. Seconded by Manny. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 6:07 PM 3