TOWN OF PRINCETON
PLANNING BOARD --- Regular Meeting --- April 3, 2013
7:30 PM The meeting was opened by chairman. Present were: Chairman Jerry Gannelli, Jon Fudeman, John Mirick, Tom Daly and Ann Neuburg, as well as alternate member Rick McCowan.
-- The board voted, all in favor, to approve minutes of March 20, 2013. They then voted all in favor to re-arrange the agenda and deal with the cell tower decisions first.
The board briefly discussed the wording in the decisions on Special Permit Modifications they had approved at the last meeting for four cellular equipment upgrades on three cell towers. Applicants were represented by Atty. Edward Pare of the firm Brown Rudnick for AT&T, and Mark Cook for Sprint.
The board had reviewed decisions as edited by John Mirick and Ed Pare, and voted all in favor to sign the decisions for AT&T on the tower at Thompson Road and at Houghton Road.
John M. then explained that wording in the Worcester Road tower decisions, regarding the conditions requiring maintenance and removal bonds, had been deleted by the applicants. Mr. Pare noted that those conditions were the responsibility of American Tower, and that AT&T and Sprint, as tenants, could not do anything about the tower, as they did not own the tower, and could not procure a bond on something they did not own. The board discussed the need for the tenants to only be allowed to occupy the tower if it was properly bonded, regardless of ownership. John M. offered to craft wording in the conditions to that effect. The applicants agreed to delay the signing of the two Worcester Road tower decisions until the next meeting on April 17, after everyone has reviewed new wording.
7:50 PM The public meeting for the Worcester Road Village project opened with Tom D., Ann N. and John M. facilitating after Jon F. and Jerry G. recused themselves as residents of that neighborhood. Tom explained the mission of this project was to find out what residents want to do about planning for the future in this mixed-use area. He described the previous effort a year ago and noted that the committee report would not be used, since that committee had failed to file a Conflict of Interest disclaimer. The Planning Board has decided to re-invent the project without a committee and have general, public meetings instead, using reports from the CMRPC Planner Vera Kolias who had collected info from focus groups and surveys last year. John M. distributed a summary of Kolias’ findings.
As a first step, he asked participants to identify “What’s wrong?” with the current business-zoned area of Worcester Road: 1) Post Office Place has a lot of vacancy. 2) Current zoning encourages strip development along road frontage and several large parcels and back land lie beyond business zone. 3) Pedestrian access is horrible.
Advisory Board member Jim Comer suggested the PB adopt zoning that would essentially reinstate deeded covenants that were in effect in his Wildwood development when it was initially built. Such covenants typically extinguish after 30 years and are strictly a private contract, John M. explained. Mr. Comer also suggested eliminating the business zone south of Post Office Place.
John M. asked the “magic wand” question and some discussion ensued about the varieties of zoning possibilities and the desire for sidewalks or a bicycle lane or path. Bruce Jacobson said the project should be broken out into a series of packages to separate two issues: re-zoning existing parcels and creation of a zoning overly. The issue of changing the zoning north of the PMLD plant from residential to business came up, and Jerry G. noted that the PB tried to change it two years ago and couldn’t gather the support. Rick McCowan said the town’s master plan calls for creation of a village, mixed-use district in the area, and that if you do nothing to manage growth, it will all become residential, and is that what residents want? Another point made was that it’s more
of a business district than a village and the concept of a village is not tenable. Tom D. pointed out that current (business) zoning allows a list of uses including gas station and auto sales, which may not be what residents want, so some kind of zoning change may be in order. John M. summarized the effort: The town is likely to grow… to what extent do citizens want to manage that growth through planning?
The board announced that the next public meeting would be May 15; same time and place. In response to a request larger map of the area will be displayed, probably on the projection screen.
8:55 PM All voted in favor to adjourn.
Respectfully Submitted
___________________
Marie Auger, Administrative Assistant
Referenced Documents:
Cell tower Special Permit Modification decisions for Sprint and AT&T; Final report from CMRPC Planner Vera Kolias on Worcester Road Village project.
Marie Auger
Administrative Assistant
Planning Department
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