Rochester’s Planning Board Tuesday considered in a public hearing a special permit and site-plan review approval application to construct a commercial building that will house a recreational-marijuana establishment, Megan’s Organic Market, at 621 County Road.
The hearing was ultimately continued until the panel’s next meeting on June 27 after the applicant’s engineering representative, Phil Cordeiro, explained the specifics of the building plan, and the board asked for more information on those details.
Cordeiro said his client will ask the board to approve two variances regarding the required separation of well systems from the business’s stormwater system. He said the plan is for a 7,500-square-foot commercial building between two residential lots with a 24-foot-wide driveway entrance. Traffic flow will send deliveries to the western rear of the building and be spacious enough for emergency vehicle access as well.
Water will come from a tie-in to the Town of Wareham. Vegetative setbacks of 20 feet will be built between the residences as well as a 6-foot-high fence on one side. Lighting will have “zero spillage” onto other properties and will be controlled by motion sensors.
Board Chairman Arnold Johnson asked for more information on signage and the sightlines that the business will have from the abutting homeowners and to revisit a past traffic study on the area. Cordeiro said he had not yet conducted a sightline test. Johnson said to definitely do one and return to the next meeting with a mock-up of the intended signage.
The town’s engineer, Ken Motta of Field Engineering, asked how much earth will be removed. Cordeiro said earth dug from one part of the parcel will basically remain on site. Johnson instructed Motta and Cordeiro to work on plan details for the next meeting.
The meeting began with the board voting in favor of an Approval Not Required petition for the Blais Family Living Trust property at Clapp Road and Mary’s Pond Road, deciding that Planning Board regulations and restrictions do not apply. The plan at the address is to create two house lots measuring 98,000 square feet each out of what was originally three lots.
After Johnson announced the notices to the abutters’ list had gone out too late, the board continued until June 27 a hearing into a special permit and site-plan review for a plan to construct a building for restoration, detailing and storage of collectible cars at 0 New Bedford Road.
The board also continued to June 27 the public hearing into a site-plan-approval application to relocate a native tree and perennial nursery from Clarksburg, Maryland, to 2.5 acres that will be leased by Jennifer and Charles Anderson at 157 Vaughn Hill Road to sell “native species.” Board members told the petitioners that the drawn plan they submitted lacked details on the parking lot, as to a cross section of the hard-top plan and parking design.
The Planning Board’s next regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 27, at 7:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Planning Board
By Michael J. DeCicco