The Marion Zoning Board of Appeals and Town Counsel Jon Witten engaged developer Ken Steen and his attorney Mark Bobrowski on September 8 in a continued public hearing for the Heron Cove project.
The discussion that ensued at the Police Station was dominated by questions of procedure and the application of conditioning to a draft decision that Witten says he can have ready for the next ZBA meeting.
Bobrowski said he was expecting to see a draft decision on September 8, but Witten said the ZBA had not yet finished deliberating conditions of approval.
The conclusion was to continue the public hearing one more time and push off the September 22 regular date for the next ZBA meeting and hold it on September 29, when it is anticipated from all sides that Witten will have written into a draft decision the conditions ZBA members want to see.
Steen’s 120-unit, affordable-housing development planned off Route 6 near the Wareham town line is a Local Initiative Program (LIP) 670CMR negotiated with and approved by the Marion Select Board.
ZBA Chairperson Cynthia Callow opened the continued public hearing by reading a letter from Marion Town Administrator Jay McGrail indicating that the latest list of 27 waiver requests made by the applicant Heron Cove LLC fits into the same scope as those that were negotiated by the Select Board over the course of a year before the current LIP application came to the ZBA.
McGrail’s letter also stressed that neither the Select Board nor the town administration wished to inhibit in any way the vetting process of the ZBA, and he thanked the board’s members for all their hard work on the case. A decision would be required 40 days out from the closure of the public hearing.
Bobrowski then requested that the ZBA keep the public hearing open and said he would agree to an extension as it becomes necessary.
Callow and ZBA members Will Tifft and Dr. Ed Hoffer agreed they would vote to approve the project with conditions.
“The Select Board did not delve into the details. They left it to the ZBA, and I think that is a good use of your time,” said Witten.
Callow proposed an outline dividing conditions into preconstruction, during and after construction. Hoffer said he found the landscaping consultant’s comments most useful, and Tifft said clarity in landscaping was something he wants to see in the decision.
Steen told the board he would submit some signage ideas and compared them to low-profile signs currently on Route 6.
Witten recommended the board not seek to position itself to issue a second approval. The board, he said, can delegate the approval of conditions (signage, for instance) to Marion Building commissioner Bob Grillo but should not seek “a second bite at the apple.”
Steen agreed to submit a new set of plans, and Witten said he could write a new decision taking into account proposed conditions. Bobrowski will have an opportunity to review the conditions and comment before the public hearing is closed.
Grillo said there was much in the way of worthwhile content in the 2012 list of conditions. Grillo told Witten he wanted to make sure it’s spelled out very clearly who is responsible for what, including inspections of the roads and culverts, for example.
“I feel I’m probably going to be the point man, not that I’m doing those inspections, but I just want to make sure that when those inspections are done they’re documented, they’re logged in and they’re in a central location because it doesn’t seem to be that that was the case (with Marion Village Estates, a prior Steen project,)” said Grillo.
Witten had said that Grillo is not to be thrust into a role of judging anything subjective. In response to Grillo’s concern and Callow’s interest in getting such a process on the record, Witten said he would make sure that request is written into his decision draft.
Steen’s representative, Phil Cordeiro of Allen & Major Associates, said that writing signage into the updated site plan was the lone remaining change, and Steen indicated belief that the site plan would be updated at least one week in advance of the ZBA’s next meeting.
Grillo reminded the applicant that online permitting is now in action in Marion, making the application accessible to multiple departments.
At the start of the September 8 meeting, the ZBA held a moment of silence for Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away on the afternoon of the meeting.
The next meeting of the Marion ZBA is scheduled for Thursday, September 29, at 6:30 pm.
Marion Zoning Board of Appeals
By Mick Colageo