Town Of Monterey, MA
Planning Board Meeting
Thursday 4/6/17
Members present:
Larry Klein
Maggie Leonard
Stephen Enoch
Pat Solomon
Tom Sawyer
Roger Tryon
Richard Piepho (arrived 7:20p.m.)
Public present:
Eoin Higgins, Reporter Berkshire Eagle
Dustin Collins
Bettina Schwartz
Bella August
Belvin Williams
Ira Kaplan (Attorney)
Stephen Moore
Wendy Jensen
Open Meeting at 7:04
Business from the Public
Ira Kaplan – Waive reading of the letter sent to the board. Kaplan reviewed his letter, which contends that the Planning Board can and should either disapprove the Hume site plan review or make the project approval contingent on Hume constructing its own access road. Kaplan also discussed response letter from camp Hume. Kaplan stated that there was no opposition to the beliefs of Hume. (They are a religious camp.) Kaplan talked about the Planning Boards’ discussions with Shawn Tryon, the Chief of Operations for the highway dept., and reported that the neighbors who he represents do not wish to have a paved road as a safety upgrade. The reasoning is that vehicles will go faster on a paved road.
Neighbors concerns:
Concern over dangerous road
Concern over loudspeaker noise.
Access road
Interpretation of planning boards responsibility.
Approve
Approve with conditions
Reject
Suggests approving with condition of new access road.
Emergency access. Leonard stated that there is definitely emergency access because the fire department has already responded to a fire at the exact location as the proposed new lodge.
Kaplan exhorted the Planning Board that site plan review “has teeth” and it is his contention that the Planning Board can compel Hume Lake Christian Camps to construct its own access road as a condition for site plan approval.
Klein noted that while Kaplan was representing neighbors who are concerned about road safety it is counter-productive for those same neighbors to immediately eliminate suggested fixes such as widening or paving Cronk Road.
Stephen Enoch – Addressed noise issue
No reference to Noise in Site plan review documents.
Local officials are able to enforce noise issues.
Discussion by attendees on what can be done about noise.
Maggie – went to the board of health re Noise issues
They suggested taking measurements
Neighbors – Bella August, a long-time Cronk Road resident and second-homer, described the camp as it was in prior years with New England Keswick and compared it with the current Hume traffic with supply trucks and buses transporting campers. August noted that Hume “seems to be a much bigger operation than Keswick.” August is concerned that much larger vehicles are using the road than it was designed for, and that more frequent traffic is also a safety concern.
Roger Tryon – Noted that the blind curve on Cronk Road has always been there. Tryon stated that the town has a 49’ right-of-way (ROW) and that the town needs to survey Cronk Road and see what properties are in the town ROW. Then the town can look at what they have to work with and see if there are some safety improvements that can be made.
Limiting Hume Camp to the exclusive use of the northern portion of Chestnut Hill Road that leads to Rte. 23 is too steep to be practical for winter use and especially buses.
Question as to if Hume can expand to any size they want.
Neighbor – question as to if Hume plays payment-in-lieu-of-taxes or PILOT funds. According to the board of assessors Hume does not pay any taxes.
Stephen Enoch – Report about site plan review.
Read letter sent to the planning board. Enoch reported on his research about rejecting permits and/or approval based on the quality of the road. He noted that Site Plan Review refers to the Subdivision Control laws and the same standards for road quality and access roads must be applied here.
Pat Solomon – How or where do we address safety?
Larry Klein – Thoughts on responsibilities of the town and addressing problems in the road.
Tom Sawyer – Ideas for possible restrictions on the Site plan re Noise.
Reading John Szablonski’s letter into the Record by Maggie Leonard
Resident – concern that the town will need to expand the road at the neighbors expense.
Stephen Enoch – reiterated that there is an appeals process.
Close discussion by the public at 8:45
Deliberation by the board.
Discussion on the waiver of the parking requirement from 5 to 3
Discussion on the appearance from the street.
Suggest requiring outside lighting be down facing
Discussion on recommending another location for the Lodge that is farther away from the house.
Discussion on approval process.
Voting on waivers and conditions:
Motion to waive parking requirement from 5 to 3 is passed by majority of the board
Motion to disapprove site review rejected by majority
Motion to approve site plan review contingent on re-siting the 7500’ multi purpose building further from Chestnut Hill road. Rejected by majority.
Motion to approve with the need to supply a paid police detail during construction. – passed by majority.
Motion to limit outdoor sound – to hours and notice.
Motion to implement a traffic study – denied by planning board
Final list of conditions for site plan approval:
Hume funds a police detail during construction activities to monitor traffic during construction periods.
Limit construction hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The total number of beds is not to exceed the number on the camp permit for any given year.
That outdoor amplified sound (OAS) be limited to the following:
No OAS from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. except for emergency announcements.
Limit OAS to public address announcements to facilitate camp operations and for safety and emergencies.
Provide 48 notice via email to neighbors when there will be events that use OAS.
Meeting adjourned at 11:40pm
Respectfully submitted,
Tom Sawyer
Maggie Leonard
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