Town of Princeton PLANNING BOARD --- Regular Meeting --- February 19, 2014
7:30 PM The meeting was opened by Chairman Tom Daly. Present were: Jon Fudeman, Ann Neuburg, Richard Bisk and John Mirick. Board voted all in favor to approve Feb. 5 Regular Meeting Minutes. Tom D. discussed zoning map corrections and zoning changes.
New Business
Bill Gagnier of Gregory Hill Realty Trust came in with Atty. Tom Bovenzi to outline his site plan at 2 Mountain Road—required with the approval of a special permit from the ZBA on Jan. 30. His corner building dates from 1775 and housed a variety of businesses on the ground floor, including the Post Office which vacated in 1986. Main concern from ZBA hearing and from PB members is the parking for three vehicles on the south side of the building, lined up perpendicular to both the building and Gregory Hill Road. Mr. Gagnier explained that in 2000-01, the town reconstructed the entire corner to improve road width and lines of sight. The design included the parking spaces, which were given more space to allow turning without backing into the travelway of Gregory Hill Road and the crest of the road was reconstructed
from a convex surface into a safer concave surface. He said the design involved the efforts of Mass DOT and Parsons Transportation Group, which was contracted by the town. He insisted there would be no truck deliveries on that side, and the parking would be only for clients and customers of the new tenants. Also, no accidents were ever documented as being directly caused by drivers entering and exiting those three spaces. John M. asked to see evidence from the engineers as to why they approved this layout.
Mr. Gagnier said he’d been working on parking/traffic improvements since he bought the building 22 years ago. Snow is cleared and bucketed away from the area to keep sight lines open. The parking surfaces are all permeable and when adding all areas to the building’s north and east, there is off-road space for a total 24 vehicles. He went on to describe every exterior light fixture around the property which is mainly all downward-directed; and, described how screening from neighbors around the property is accomplished with 12’ tall arbor vitae.
One Worcester Road resident, Jeff Yagou, said that traffic should not be an issue since Gregory Hill Road was pushed to the south, away from the three parking spaces, during the 2001 reconstruction. John M. explained that the Planning Board is charged with studying the traffic and parking around any property as part of a site plan review. Atty. Bovenzi offered to forward conditions from previous special permit[s] regarding deliveries, signage, etc.
The PB agreed to meet with Mr. Gagnier for a site visit and post it for Saturday, Feb. 22 at 9 AM and to continue the review to their next regular meeting at 7 PM on March 5.
Old Business:
8:40 PM Discussion started on Worcester Road project and related zoning amendments, with Jon F. recusing himself. Tom D. asked to post documents online along with the public hearing notice already posted. He also would like CMRPC to produce clean maps to show each zoning change, for presentation at ATM if not the March 5 hearing.
9:00 PM Board voted to adjourn
Respectfully Submitted: Marie Auger, admin. assistant
Referenced Documents: Worcester Road Village Concept list of possible Overlay components. Draft copies of articles. Plans and drawings foe 2 Mountain Road
Marie Auger
Administrative Assistant
Planning Department
978-464-2100
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