Planting Island resident Dianne Cosman was admittedly excited at the thought that the Marion Planning Board was about to finalize a bylaw for short-term rentals that would be recommended to voters at the May 13 Annual Town Meeting, but after another lengthy discussion on Monday night, the board was further away from consensus than it had appeared two weeks ago.
Town Planner Doug Guey-Lee then issued a reality check, advising the members that procedural hurdles essentially cancel the Planning Board’s original plan to have a bylaw drafted in time for the Town Meeting warrant.
“I really was excited tonight, I thought something was going to happen. The discussion makes me irate. We keep going over the same things again,” said Cosman, obviously frustrated but making sure to thank the board for its time spent researching and deliberating the matter. “Most of (the owners of short-term rentals) live out of state. … The people here are going to vote on this. … We have to put something on the table and have some guidelines. The town is losing out, the neighbors are losing out.”
Absent of a realistic chance at getting a bylaw to the May 13 Town Meeting floor, Chairman Tucker Burr and Vice Chairman Andrew Daniel expressed a desire to continue hammering away at the details to at least reach a stage of public feedback to further inform the process.
Member Ryan Burke, noting that Burr proposed no short-term rentals in a residential zone and member Eileen Marum’s “serious concerns about housing stock and affordability,” hesitated to move forward.
Over the course of Monday’s discussion, board members were able to find common ground on basic issues such as a requirement that renters provide off-street parking for their guests, not to put a limit on the number of registrations per owner, not make a renter’s personal information available to the public but only to the owner and to eliminate a reference to inspections made by the Police Department.
There was some disagreement, however, over the latest draft with Daniel frustrated by the absence of what he believed were agreed-upon edits from the last meeting.
Cosman hoped that a bylaw would leverage out-of-state operators to sell. “They don’t want to file tax returns, they just want to make money. Those houses are finally going to be put on the market,” she said. “The devil’s in the details. We have a right to vote on this; we need to have something put in front of us.”
“We have to have something that’s going to pass,” suggested member W. Dale Jones. “I would like to see us go in with an acceptable chunk, then next year come back with more.”
At Guey-Lee’s recommendation, the discussion was continued to the board’s next meeting on April 1.
A continued public hearing for major site-plan review for the proposed expansion of Fieldstone Farms Market at 806 Mill Street (Route 6 – Map 17, Lots 12 and 15A, zoned Residence C) cleared an important hurdle after Burr reported that Marion Building Commissioner Bob Grillo clarified his position and that Town Counsel had been consulted.
Burr told the meeting that Grillo does not believe there are any zoning violations in proprietor Arnie Johnson’s proposal to combine a residential lot with that of the current retail business, folding them into one property as outlined in a previous meeting by Johnson’s legal representative, Doug Troyer of Pierce Atwood, CCP.
Johnson will apparently not be required to take his proposal before the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals, and that simplifies the issue of timing for Planning Board deliberations and conditioning of the project.
Guey-Lee recommended the Plymouth-based firm of Beals & Thomas to act as the town’s peer-review consultant with SITEC as his second choice. He told the board that either is available to take the job. Along with that, Guey-Lee recommended Johnson’s 53G account be increased to $5,000.
A stormwater report will be required for review.
Waivers requested would include a zoning compliance, and Marum noted that the traffic study had already been waived.
Board member Alanna Nelson asked if there might be an opportunity for synchronicity with the Marion Conservation Commission, which anticipates a Request for Determination of Applicability application from Johnson. Guey-Lee, however, said, “I don’t see them being the driving force on this project.”
Burr anticipates that once site-plan review has given its report to the applicant, then the Planning Board will be ready to discuss the applicant’s response, probably on May 6. In the meantime, the public hearing was continued to April 16 at 7:10 pm.
In a public hearing, an update to the Zoning Map’s Aquifer Protection District to match that shown on MassDEP’s map was approved. The recommended changes pursuant to the requirements of General Law Chapter 40A, Section 5 and town General Bylaws will be recommended to voters at the May 13 Annual Town Meeting.
Despite Nelson’s effort to sustain progress on the MS4 Stormwater Management Bylaw (sewer), the membership was divided between those with an urgency to demonstrate a commitment to the Environmental Protection Agency and those more concerned to sift out the EPA’s requirements from the EPA’s suggestions so as to avoid burdening Marion property owners.
Supporting Nelson’s push, Marum said that to meet the terms of the town’s stormwater-discharge permit, the town needs to develop a stormwater-management program.
“And I don’t believe Marion has one,” said Marum, citing a need for education and public participation leading to the establishment of known, best practices. “Townspeople need to have a good understanding of what the EPA is charged with.”
Daniel and Burr were on the opposite side of the issue. “I would like to see the EPA return with a minimal requirement bylaw,” said Daniel. “We can have two different conversations, what we have to have and what we’d like to have for our community,” said Burr, insisting the two be distinguished. Otherwise, he feels that the EPA is “holding the town hostage.”
Burke said, “We’re getting presented with a bylaw and being asked to recommend it.” Burke doesn’t think the Planning Board should be voting on bylaws that it does not write. “Bring the bylaw back to the EPA standards.”
Nelson asserted that an acre of clearing has a significant impact on stormwater. “We need to pick a number and move ahead,” she said. “It should be one of our goals as a town.”
Daniel said such a bylaw should take into account its financial impact. “This is not a good time, people are struggling. I’m just not going to put anything on them more restrictive,” he said.
Nelson said the existing bylaw is vague. “Our erosion-control bylaw is pretty vague and doesn’t give the Planning Board the tools that it needs to deal with it,” she said.
Select Board member Randy Parker, in attendance, said, “Alanna has a point … tie it into current zoning. If someone wants to do a project, they have to follow the MS4 for that lot.”
Resident Barry Gaffey, attending remotely, was given the floor and suggested that private homeowners are being unfairly targeted.
“Let’s just do what the state requires of us,” he said. “The town has already allowed some sump pumps into the sewer system … grandfathered, inspected, but I think we should focus on the big players and some of the gravity (septic systems). … I’d be in favor of meeting the state’s requirements, but when you start talking 50,000 square feet? … It’s an overage.”
The next meeting of the Marion Planning Board is scheduled for Monday, April 1, at 7:00 pm at the Marion Police Station on Route 6.
Marion Planning Board
By Mick Colageo