1937-04-30 - Laserfiche WebLink

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S � in the Town. This is a home town, he said, and its future rests in its development as a home town. The Planning Board did hope that the Town would apply the T.1 zone to the Concord Turn.pike but its failure was due to the personal drive of one man. He said that speaking as one whose real estate value was affected by this, he moved into the Town because he wanted a place for a nice home with plenty of room. He took an old farmhouse and tried to make it into a home and put a great deal of his earnings into it and naturally he feels the re- sentment that any man would feel when a filling station was put in his front yard. A salesroom would seem to increase the damaging effect to his property. }beyond that, he thought it marked the type of town that Lexington was. If the Town is going to permit spot zones to be set up in residential sections, it is going to discourage people from coming here to make their homes. Mr. Borden said that he thought this was a good opportunity for the Board of Appeals to set a precedent in order to protect the interests of the neighbor- hood. Mr. William P. Knecht said that he thought he ought to answer for the West Lexington Civic Improvement ,Association, He said that at no time had he made any statements that might not be tied up to facts. He said that he heard a statement made at one of the Town Meetings by one of Mr. Childs' em- ployees that since Childs had paid taxes on this piece of property for three years, he should be able to do something ' with it, and he was greatly surprised to hear that Mr. Childs had lust taken title to the property. Mr. Knecht said that the ssociation was a very new group of people representing about sixty families in West Lexington and he said that the group was made up of very ordinary people. He said that the State Highway Dept. was opposed to any business interests along the Concord Turnpike because it is a super -way and the Department is interested in keeping it as natural as possible. The locus in question is the entrance to the Town. The Association feels that the present application is the opening wedge for a number of business enterprises along the highway. Mr. Knecht said that he was struck with the resemblance be- tween Mr. Childs' plans and those that Howard Johnson would have drawn up. The Association would like to see the new plans kept in form and intent with the original plan. -'hey do not object to a gasoline filling station but they do ob- ject to a garage or a salesroom. Mr. Knecht said that he thought this was a dangerous corner and a salesroom would increase the traffic hazard. He stated that the letter written to the Yinute-Man was not written to pack the meeting as that could have been done very easily. Mr. Hobert Fawcett, Chairman of the West Lexington Civic Improvement Association said that the Organization was not opposed to a gasoline filling station but was opposed to a salesroom. '