2008-02-13-PB-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes for the Meeting of February 13, 2008 Page 3 were the revenue generators. Mr. Hornig said the Planning Board is using current terms and figures to update the bylaw. The Board can’t use what people thought 12 years ago, and they are not predicting secondary effects. Mr. Bob Bicknell, Housing Partnership Board, asked that the words “encourage the development of affordable housing whenever feasible ”previously found in section 10 be put back into the proposed version. Mr. Sandy said when he suggested reducing the number below 2,700 square feet GFA he was not suggesting that it be reduced to 1,000 square feet. The GFA for Peacock Farm houses is 1,800 square feet and that is fine for many people. Mr. Galaitsis said he had a couple of comments. He said that a minority report gets five minutes and he would not want to split his time. He said the current bylaw needs to be fixed, as some of the words are ambiguous. The guidelines were applied for the first five to seven years and only recently are the developers being allowed to go to the maximum limits. If the bylaw is abandoning some of the impact measures, the Town should get something back. He was in favor of 7,200 square feet for the GFA and using the proof plan as the base for multipliers. He was not in favor of removing other controls. There is more open space required. One of the key things to him is comparable impacts. He also felt that the guideline of providing smaller units was being ignored. Mr. Arthur Katz, precinct 3, said the changes are proposed because the Board is not happy with current regulations. Now they are more restrictions; why would these work? Mr. Hornig said he didn’t agree that the current bylaws don’t work, they are just trying to improve and simplify the bylaw while meeting the expectations of others. Mr. Zurlo said that as a new member of the Planning Board the current zoning bylaws and regulations are hard to decipher. The revisions offer clarity to the process. Mr. Galaitsis said we got early input from businesses and he would like more input from others. Ms. McCall-Taylor said that the staff had sought early input from many boards and committees, as well as from the development community.