1956-05-07 - Laserfiche WebLink

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BOARD OF Taken under consideration next were the notices APPEALS of petitions to be heard by i 1,e Board of Appeals on May ' 8, 1956. It was decided to take no action on the peti- tions to be heard with the exception of that of Salveo Ponte for permission to erect and maintain a 3' x 4' sign on his house lot. The Board voted to go on record as being opposed to the granting of said petition and to write a letter to the Board of Appeals setting forth the reasons for such opposition. It was decided to write that in the opinion of the. Board not only would the erection of a large sign in a residential district set a bad precedent but it would also reduce the property values and destroy some of the amenities in the neighbor- hood; that, in principle, the Board does not approve of an individual doing business in a residential area con- trary to the zoning by-law; and that said law should be enforced. BOARD OF At the request of Rufus L. McQuillan, Chairman HEALTH of the Board of Health, he and Mark D. Lurvey, Health - Sanitarian, met with the Planning Board at 8:20 p.m. to SEWERS discuss the sewer situation in Lexington. Mr. McQuillan reported that the sewer situation was becoming serious in spite of the fact that the new Sanitarian, Mr. Lurvey, was.being very strict in not allowing building permits to be issued for lots not having satisfactory percola- tion and in seeing that cesspools and septic tanks are properly built and installed. He quoted Engineering De- partment figures that there were 5786 residences in Lexington, 2602 connected to the town sewer system and 3184 or 55% of the total not connected. Mr. McQuillan stated that since these figures were complied the per- centage of homes not connected to a sewer was increas- ing all the time. It was his opinion that sewers were only being built in areas where emergency conditions existed and not commensurate with the rapid building of houses in Lexington. On being asked for a resume of the critical areas where sewers were needed, Pair. Lurvey showed a list of addrdsses where cesspools and septic tanks had over- flowed in the last two weeks, said that every other call to the Department of Health office was in the form of a complaint about sewerage, and that the monthly report of the Board of Health lists these complaints and what had been done about them. Mr. Lurvey mentioned Shade Street, the Woodhaven development, Concord Avenue, Patterson Road and Bedford Street in the vicinity of Pine Knoll Road as present trouble areas. Mr. McQuillan stated that, in his opinion, the sewerage problem on 30,000 lots could be taken care of to a large degree but that houses on lots of 15,000 sq. ft. or less should be required to connect to a town