Tasked with protecting the town from businesses that could change the character of Marion with their trademarked color schemes, drive-thru windows, and sheer size, the Marion Planning Board Master Plan Subcommittee is weighing its options on how best to regulate such businesses without appearing to blatantly exclude them.
Subcommittee Co-Chairman Rico Ferrari made a few things clear on December 10 before bylaw discussions began: Marion cannot have a bylaw that excludes a particular business, protects local businesses, restricts competition, or regulates the interior of a business structure.
What the town could do, though, is restrict the size of a building’s footprint, ban drive-thru windows, and regulate the exterior aesthetics of a would-be corporate-stylized building.
“We want control,” stated Planning Board and subcommittee member Robert Lane, “but not exclusion.”
The subcommittee, doing the research for formula business bylaw options and the legwork of forming a new Master Plan, has options to explore before making a recommendation to the Planning Board as a whole.
Some members present for discussion agreed that a viable option would be to add drive-thru windows to the current principal use table of the bylaw, prohibiting them from all zoning districts. Other suggestions were limiting drive-thrus to banks, or allowing them by special permit only, if possible.
Subcommittee member Marilyn Walley brought up a point about the elderly in the area and their reliance on drive-thrus for convenience and safety.
“We should take into account the senior population,” said Walley. “Aging populations really like drive-thrus,” especially when it is cold, icy, or their mobility is limited, she specified.
Former Planning Board member and subcommittee member Ted North wondered if CVS would still build their store at the proposed location on the corner of Route 6 and Front Street without a drive-thru and commented, “It puts the monkey back on the Planning Board’s back.”
Ferrari said allowing drive-thrus through special permit could leave it up to the discernment of both parties: The Planning Board could grant the special permit for a drive-thru, or not – and CVS could choose to build without it, or to not build at all.
Lane said limiting the size of structures would be a good way to regulate business branding, but wondered what exactly the purpose of amending or creating a new bylaw is.
“We have to decide what the goal is,” said Lane. “I think we should list what we want to accomplish and then construct the bylaw around it,” said Lane. Size and architecture, but what else?
Subcommittee members briefly discussed the concept of the more attractive “Cape Cod” design that towns on the Cape have adopted when formula businesses come to town.
Look at what CVS has proposed, commented Ferrari. “It is pretty … Cape Coddy,” he said.
North said the main factor when you see a business structure is, “Are you going to think of it as a building, or as a particular business?”
After discussing the different bylaw options for regulating formula businesses, Walley pointed out what she called a few potential “unintended consequences.”
“It could make a good, quality business look at this (bylaw) and say, ‘I don’t want to go through with this. I can’t work with this, this is onerous,’” said Walley. Much of the bylaw discussion, she said, would appear as though they do not want branded businesses in town – what she called “the elephant.”
“This is saying we don’t want a branded business it town,” said Walley. “I’m not sure I want that.”
Businesses like Domino’s Pizza or Not Your Average Joes, among others, would be welcome in town by Marion residents, some members thought.
“Now you’re picking winners and losers,” said North, “and you can’t pick winners and losers.”
By Jean Perry
