Zoning Board of Appeals
Minutes
March 16, 2011
Landuse Meeting Room
Members present: Chair Ethan Berg, (EB); Cliff Snyder, (CS); Robert Fuster (RF); Jo Anne Huntley Magee (JM)
Absent with notification: Shawn Leary Considine, SLC: Ned Douglas, ND
Staff present: Town Planner Mary Albertson (MA) and Land Use Clerk Peggy Ammendola, (PA)
Allen & Major Associates, Inc., 489 Pittsfield Rd, Map 33 Parcel 4, public hearing to reconsider the June 24, 2010 - Center at Lenox Decision - Exhibit 4 - Signage Criteria. It was decided at a ZBA meeting on February 16, 2011 that a public hearing would be noticed to be held March 16, 2011 to reconsider the signage.
Present at tonight’s hearing representing the Center at Lenox was Jeff Curley, a Project Manager with SR Weiner and Associates and Peter Corbett, an attorney with Goulston and Stores of Boston.
Also present was Building Commissioner Bill Thornton.
No correspondence was received and there were no members of the public in attendance.
Mr. Thornton explained that he had received from Marshalls, an existing business located at the Center, a request for a sign. He had two questions:
1) Was it the intent of the ZBA to include only new buildings or the entire project in their decision related to signage?
2) What is the formula for allowable signs and what is the ZBA’s definition of a façade?
Discussion ensued and RF and CS, the two members who were participants in the hearings leading up to the Decision of June 24, 2010, weighed in with their recollection of the previous public hearings. They agreed that the intention was that the decision would apply to all of the businesses, existing and new, to be consistent and that the façade would be the entire two dimensional area of the ground view of the building. Mr. Curley and Mr. Corbett stated that this is consistent with the materials in the record.
There was discussion as to whether there should be a vote and a decision tendered that would clarify the decision. Ultimately it was decided that from a procedural point of view 1) that this was the Board’s attempt to respond to the Building Commissioner for clarification and not an amendment to the original Decision and 2) that a memo would answer all questions and points to the visual records submitted that are a part of the public record.
It was decided that a memo for signage criteria would be prepared and signed by Ethan Berg, Chairman of the ZBA, and placed in the file in the Town Clerk’s office.
Respectfully submitted,
Peggy Ammendola
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