The owner of Fieldstone market will need to revise his plan for an expansion of his store and the parking around it.
Johnson Family Investments LLC, 806 Mill Street, applied for a variance from the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals for a variance from Section 230-5.2a of the Marion Zoning Bylaw allowing for lot coverage exceeding 40% of the lot area.
The January 11 public hearing drew plenty of attention from abutting residents concerned with the plan to expand parking in the back of the store.
Fieldstone owner Arnie Johnson, familiar to municipal public hearings as the chairman of the Rochester Planning Board, was represented by Bill Madden of G.A.F. Engineering.
Madden explained that the Frigate Restaurant that had preceded Fieldstone at the site had been approved in 2012 for the same variance of lot coverage.
ZBA Chairperson Cynthia Callow read into the record Zoning Bylaw 230-2.3d, listing the conditions necessary to justify the granting of the variance requested. Callow also read from Zoning Bylaw 230-5.2 (exceptions to minimum lot requirements.)
Madden told the ZBA that Johnson is applying for site-plan review of the Planning Board and will make a Form A application to bring together two separate lots. Johnson will also apply with the Conservation Commission for a Request for Determination of Applicability regarding the wetland to the southwest of the lot that Madden considers very small.
Madden explained that the back lot will be used by employees, freeing up spaces for customers out front.
In discussing the soils, Madden called the area the low point of Route 6 where the water table is high and the soils do not match those of the Residence C zoning area. He considers the soils unique and in place because of their location.
Madden says the hardship faced by Johnson is the soil that he says is not consistent with the Residence C zoning area combined with the high-water table.
ZBA member Dana Nilson said he has a problem with the assumption that the high-water table makes the lot unique and thusly, a hardship. Madden said five test pits show a variety of water-table height. He said the house Johnson recently bought to expand his parking indicates a watermark 4 feet up the cellar wall.
Jeff Doubrava, a ZBA member (and chairman of the Conservation Commission), clarified that the expansion of the building takes away no parking spaces. But he took issue with the amount of impervious surface coming as a result of the expansion of the parking lot. Madden said a pervious surface would not serve a food-service business effectively.
Residents in attendance took issue with the parking expansion. Johnson explained that he could have 16 employees on site at once, that there are presently 33 on the payroll and that number exceeded 50 last summer.
Fieldstone closes at 7:00 pm and the ice cream counter at 9:00 pm in season. Johnson said he wants no lighting in the back parking lot and doesn’t believe it would be needed for the ice-cream-only hours.
He further said he needs a travel way to get delivery trucks around the back of the building. He noted that in six years open, this is the first he has heard of his dumpster being picked up at an inopportune time. He said he would call the service because “I want to be a good neighbor.”
One resident challenged the public good of the expansion because of its impact on the residential neighborhood.
Having heard from abutters and as more questions arose, Callow recommended continuing the case to gain more knowledge.
With that, the ZBA voted to continue the case, requesting an alternate plan that better addresses the abutters’ concerns. The case was continued to the ZBA’s February 8 meeting, Nilson’s being the lone dissenting vote.
The John P. Kendall Trust was voted a Special Permit to demolish a house and construct a new one at 39 Water Street.
Will Saltonstall was on hand to represent the Kendalls, and Callow read into the record Zoning Bylaw 230-6.1 c1 on nonconforming structures that among other things, must not be more substantially detrimental to their neighborhood.
Saltonstall explained that given the house’s position in the flood zone, his choice was to limit renovation to less than 50% of the home’s value (a $200,000 renovation) or to replace the house altogether. The applicants have chosen the latter.
ZBA member Margie Baldwin said, without a building across the street, the height will not be an issue, and she appreciated the location of the garage in the new house being off to the side. Saltonstall clarified that the entry could come from the front or the side.
Building Commissioner Bob Grillo suggested that if one of the properties was sold, the Planning Board would need to vet a shared driveway. Saltonstall thought, in the case of an easement that a special permit from the Planning Board would not be required but added that he would have no problem making that application.
With one question during public comment, the board voted to close the public hearing and without dissent, approved the special permit.
The next meeting of the Marion ZBA is scheduled for Thursday, January 25, at 6:30 pm at the Marion Police Station on Route 6.
Marion Zoning Board of Appeals
By Mick Colageo