The Rochester Planning Board Tuesday permitted the construction of an in-ground swimming pool behind a multi-unit home at 7 Marion Road. Building owner Kerri Souza received approval to install an 18×36-foot, 6-inch-deep pool with a steel-wall vinyl liner that she alone will use behind her four-unit building.
The project’s installer, Gary Medeiros, promised the board the pool won’t be visible from the road. It will be surrounded by an ornamental aluminum fence, and all the fill created by the work will remain on site.
In answer to the Planning Board’s questions, Medeiros said the pool will be situated 24 feet away from the main building and 30 feet from the accessory building. Souza assured the board this will be a private pool for her use only. It will be accessible from the back door of her unit. She rents out the other three units.
Planning Board Chairman Arnold Johnson signaled the panel’s approval by instructing Town Planner Nancy Durfee and Board Administrator Dawn DiMaggio to draft a decision that the board members will sign at their next meeting.
Prior to this hearing, the board approved and signed the Scenic Highway permit application to place a 1,100 foot-long, 8-foot-tall, deer-exclusionary fence along the Elliot Farm property on Marion Road.
The board then continued until February 28 its hearing into the special permit and site-plan-review application for a large-scale, photovoltaic canopy system being proposed in the rear parking lot of Rochester Memorial School. Durfee said project petitioners told her they have yet to complete their landscaping plan.
Rochester’s new Building Commissioner Paul Boucher asked the board for direction on handling proposals to build in-law apartments. He said this type of construction is not addressed by town bylaw. “What direction or information can you give me?” he asked. “Or do we entertain a new bylaw?”
Boucher said he liked the board’s simple answer. Johnson said this type of application should be forwarded to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
The board’s business ended with a discussion of zoning articles for the spring annual Town Meeting. Durfee said that what’s needed will be language revisions to regulations regarding “orderly development,” marijuana retail and production regulations and agricultural/residential regulations.
Johnson said, at this point in time, “placeholder” articles are what’s needed. Exact language won’t be necessary until April.
The board’s next meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 14, at 7:00 pm in the Town Hall conference room, 1 Constitution Way.
By Michael J. DeCicco