Planning Board minutes 1989-10-16

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Minutes for the Meeting of October 16, 1989 2 RECOMMENDATIONS ON APPLICATIONS TO THE BOARD OF APPEALS 248. Additional Hearings Scheduled for October 26. 1989: Mrs. Uhrig gave an oral review of the following cases scheduled to be heard by the Board of Appeals. 40 Hartwell Avenue, M.I.T. Lincoln Lab. , to renew a special permit, for the continued use of a modular unit as a temporary structure: Mrs. Uhrig reported that when this application to allow a temporary structure was heard by the Board of Appeals in November of 1988, the Planning Board recommended that the special permit not be granted; the Building Commissioner stated that a temporary special permit can not exceed one year; and that last year's Board of Appeal's decision granted the special permit for one year, stating that the structure was considered temporary. She added that the applicant is now asking for a continua- tion of the special permit for four years. The Board agreed that the opinion of the Building Commissioner and last year's decision of the Board of Appeals should be sustained. On the motion of Mr. Sorensen, seconded by Mrs. Uhrig, it was voted 3-1-0 (Mr. Williams voted in the negative) to recommend the special permit not be granted. The Board agreed to make no comment on the following applications also lscheduled to be heard on October 26, 1989. 71 Meriam Street, Jacquelyn Katzenstein, SP, to install a projecting sign. 11 Wachusett Drive, Bernadette Shapiro, Variance, to add additional risers to bring the front steps of a dwelling down to existing grade, allowing a front yard setback of 25 feet instead of the required 30 feet. 249. Hearings Scheduled for November 9. 1989: Mr. Sorensen gave an oral review of the following cases scheduled to be heard by the Board of Appeals. 277 Bedford Street, Mobil Oil Corp. , variance, to install a canopy with a 1'-6" front yard setback instead of the required 30' , and to allow the total coverage of the existing building and canopy to be 22% instead of the required 20%. The Board agreed that none of the statutory criteria for a variance, relating to topography and soil conditions, have been met, and that the proposed expansion would be out of scale and character and overly large for the lot, which is almost entirely surrounded by residences. On the motion of Mr. Sorensen, seconded by Mr. Williams, it was voted 3-0-1 (Mrs. Wood abstained) to recommend the variance be denied. 277 Bedford Street, Mobil Oil Corp. , SP, to replace a self-service island and a full-service island with 2 self-service islands, add a canopy over the islands and modify transition area screening. The Board noted that a service station is a nonconforming use in the CN, Neigh- borhood Business district, and as such, is subject to the limitations of Section 6.3.1, particularly sub-paragraph c. , of the Zoning By-Law. They agreed that as long as it complied with the criteria of 6.3.1, they did not object to the change to self-service gas pumps. They also recom-