Planning Board minutes 1989-03-20

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Minutes for the meeting of March 20, 1989 3 1) recommend the Town Meeting accept the next to last paragraph of Section 81U of Chapter 41, Massachusetts General Laws and 2) approve the report, as amended, containing the Board's recommendations. 91. Article 45, Hilton: Joining the discussion were Attorney John Farring- ton, Architect Peter Floyd and Steven Colangelo. They distributed to the Board copies of a report summarizing and further explaining the previously filed traffic report. Mr.Farrington noted two unresolved items of Planning Board and Hilton posi- tions remain: 1) the amount of the financial contribution Hilton is propos- ing, and 2) an acceptable FAR. He explained the difficulty of basing the amount of any financial contribution on percentage of construction costs. Mrs. Uhrig commented that Town Meeting will focus on FAR and traffic problems. Mr. Farrington felt they could not reduce the FAR to .25 and still have a viable hotel that could compete in the quality hotel market. He felt the hotel, as proposed in Article 45, could be the first step in general improve- ments along Hartwell Avenue, and that the traffic study shows that the change in use would produce a reduction in peak time traffic. He further commented that the FAR limit of .15 in the CRO regional office district will have the effect of forcing any new construction into a CD rezoning. Mrs. Uhrig commented that Town Meeting will focus on FAR and traffic problems. Mr. Williams thought that new tax revenues generated by the hotel will also be a factor in Town Meeting consideration. Later in the evening, as direction to the staff, for the preparation of the Planning Board Report on Article 45, Mrs. Uhrig, Mrs. Klauminzer and Mr. Williams said they favored the proposal because: 1) the hotel is a better use of the site which can provide some services for the area; 2) of the increased tax revenues generated by the room tax and increased property taxes; and 3) of a reduction in peak hour traffic levels. 92. Article 58, Old Allen Street: The Board discussed what position they would take on this article at Town Meeting and agreed that Town Counsel should be consulted for answers to the following questions before they could reach a position: 1) who should get the land if the Town agreed to release its ownership, and 2) what is the value of the land? They agreed it was up to the Selectmen to negotiate for the disposal of the property if Town Meeting agrees to abandon Town ownership of the land. They also agreed to not take a position on the article until answers to their questions have been obtained from Town Counsel. 93. Articles 55 and 56: The Board agreed that they did not have enough information at this time to take a position on Articles 55 and 56. They ` ) 9