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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1941-01-23504 SELECTMEN'S MEETING January 23, 1941 ' A special meeting of the Board of Selectmen was held in the Selectmen's Room, Town Office Building, at 8:00 P. M. Chairman Giroux, Messrs. Locke, Rowse, and Sarano were pre- sent. The Clerk was also present. The Town Counsel, Town Engineer, Supt. of Public Works, the Building Inspector, and the Chairman of the Planning Board were present. There were also about a dozen builders, con- tractors, real estate men, etc. at the meeting. The Chairman said that the meeting was called in an attempt to clarify the Sub -Division Regulations of the Board of Survey which were written under the instructions of the Board and in accordance with Section 81-F to J of Chapter 211 of the Acts of 1936, adopted by the Town on March 28, 1938. The Chairman said that the Regulations were within the scope of the law and that the purpose was excellent but apparently some parts of them were considered a hardship on some of the builders. He asked those who had found the Sub -division re; Sub- Regulations a hardship to explain their difficulties. IIn ,.division Mr. N. L. Knipe, Jr., of the Lexington Lumber Co., said Regulations that the Regulations called for the completion of streets and ' utilities before any building can be undertaken. He said that was not the customary way to go about developing a tract of land. He said that if it was necessary to wait to have the streets approved, they would lose materially on the develop- ment feature. He said he would like to see something worked out so that the streets and houses could be built simultaneously. He said if the streets were built first, they were apt to be damaged by construction, made dirty, etc. He thought the main difficulty was to get around the provision that one cannot do anything to the development until the streets are built and accepted by the Town. . The Chairman asked if the question of the bond bothered him. Mr. Knipe said that the wording "shall require an agree- ment by the subdivider, binding on his successors in title, to construct the ways and/or utilities in the manner and location shown on said plat as finally approved" bothered very much as such an agbeement constitutes a lien on the property and would prevent anybody from buying lots for future home building. He thought the wording prevented the developer from selling any of the lots during the life of the bond. Mr. Wrightington said he hoped Mr. Knipe realized that he was dealing with a Town By -Law and that the Selectmen had no power to change it as long as that By -Law was in affect. He said of course the Selectmen could recommend to the next ' Town Meeting that the By -Law be amended. ' He said he.understood that the Lexington Lumber Company was mostly concerned -with the clause "binding on his successors in title etc." and that it thought that if the bond.provision were modified so that instead of having a bond such as now required, one equal to the estimated cost of construction could be filed, they would be satisfied. Mr. Knipe said that he agreed with most of the By -Law entirely but if it was left as now worded, it would impose a hardship on all developers. Mr. Wrightington said the agreement the By -Law called for bound all successors in title and that was the part the Lumber Company would like to have struck out. Mr. Knipe said his company would prefer to file a completion bond. Mr. Wrightington said the Selectmen could recommend an amendment and have the amount and the form of the bond left to the dis- cretion of the Selectmen if they so desired. Mr. Knipe said the amount of the bond was not material to him as an individual. Mr. Wrightington said that all the Town had done was to have two "strings" --it has the bond and the re- quirement stating that no -building permit can be issued until the ways are constructed. Mr. Caouette asked what form of bond should be filed and Mr. Wrightington said that the bond should insure the performance of the agreement. Mr. Caouette said he could find no bond men 'that knew anything about this sort of bond. Mr. Wrightington said last spring this question came up and he talked with the Employers Liability -Company and after they found out what was wanted, they went ahead and drew up the bond without any difficulty. He said it was no different than any other construction bond. Mr. Caouette asked if the Town was insisting that a street be built for acceptance and Mr. Wrightington replied in the affirmative. He said -the Regulations specified just what had to be done. Mr. Caouette asked what the standard for surfacing streets was and Mr. Wrightington said that was set forth in the Sub -division Regulations and that the streets had to be approved by the Town Engineer. Mr. Cosgrove said the type of street which the Town wished to have conformed exactly to what was required for an accepted street with the exception of the top surface *hick is four inches of stone. That is the only thing it does not re- quire. Mr. Paxton said on this construction, two asphaltic applications would be required. Mr. Albert A. Ross said that if the Town insisted on a street being constructed first and public utilities put in afterward, it was a shame because it ruined the surface. He suggested that the By-law be modified so that a base could be put in and a surface put on after the utilities had been installed. Mr. Caouette said that the Tower Estate pre- ferred to show its lots with a surface street, but naturally would prefer to have the water mains installed first. 506 The Chairman said that the Selectmen had a considerable , problem in that many developers say they.would like to have water and sewer put in and afterward fbr the street' to be finished. The Board would have the problem of putting in many water and sewer mains and in some cases the development might go well and in others it might not go at all. Mr. Fay Miller, attorney for the Tower Estate, said that in the past his clients had always paid for the water main as soon as it was put in. He said it seemd to him that if the Town had the betterment entirely paid and had assurance that the betterments would be paid shortly after the improvement was put in, there should be no objection to putting the water in first. He asked if the client was willing to pay for the water before it was put in, if there would be any obection to doing it before the pavement was installed. The hairman said first it would be necessary to have an appropriation to pay for the extension. Mr. Miller wondered if the By-law could be amended so as to permit the Selectmen to authorize extensions, if the developer was willing to pay in advance. Mr. Wrightington said it would be necessary to go to the Town Meeting for authority for the extension. Mr. Ferguson asked if this would be necessary if the developer was going to pay in advance and Mr. Wrightington replied in the affirmative saying that it was necessary inasmuch as the Town had to pay the cost in the first instance. Mr. Miller said his under- standing was that the Town ut in the water at whatever the ' cost was and then assessed 1.80 per foot. He said he meant to imply previously that his client would pay in the beginning the betterment it would later be assessed. The Chairman said it was not going to be possible for the Selectmen to ask the Town for large sums of money which would allow the Board to extend water mains indiscriminately. Mr. T. A. Custance said he did not think it was good business to allow everybody to put in his own water main if the Town was going to install water under the Betterment Act. He said he was interested in seeing the mains laid before the finished grade was put on. The Chairman said that the amount of money paid in betterments this year would not in any case come any where near the amount of money to be spent. Mr. Ross asked if the Town Meeting could authorize the Selectmen to use.-the . money coming in on sewer betterments, for water construction. Mr. Wrightington said he was not sure about it. The Chairman asked all the developers to let the Selectmen know their plans for the coming year so the Board would have something to go on. Messrs. Merriam and Walker said if developers were urged to bring in their requests in advance, the tendency would be for them to submit their requests early and these might be far in excess of what they actually were going to need. ' Mr. Rowse asked if the developers were interested in a new method in making water extensions such as paying for the extension in advance. Mr. Knipe said he had not thought about it. Mr. Miller thought it would be a good idea to have an alternative and Mr. Merriam agreed. Mr. Wrightington thought an amendment to the By-law might be possible but said that there would be the problem of who owned the pipe after it was in. Mr. Miller said that if there was some way whereby the owner could deed the pipe to the Town after it was installed, it might work out all right. It was suggested that the filing of a bond should be op- tional with the Selectmen and Mr. Wrightington said the Board would be better off if the question was notoptional. Mr. Paxton retired at 9;00 P.M. The Chairman suggested that the group get together and decide what it wanted and then submit its suggestions to the Board. Mr. Wrightington said that only three things had been suggested. 1. Imposing the obligation on successors in title. 2. Failure to issue a building permit until streets were constructed. 3. Making the bond more flexible. Mr. Walker said the Lexington Trust Company had a peculiar situation. He said that the Lexington Manor Development was approved eighteen or twenty years ago and many of the streets simply appear on paper. The bank is now faced with the question of asking the Board of Survey to relocate some streets. The bank got an informal opinion from an attorney who said he thought it would come under this new Sub -division if a relocation was petitioned for. He asked if it would be necessary for the bank to comply with the By -Law. Mr. Wrightington said there was no doubt that the bank would have to comply with whatever By -Law was in effect at the time of relocation. He said there was an alternative which would be to have the abutters exchange parcels of`real estate and have deeds -drawn up and recorded with- out referring to the Board of Survey Layout. If they could not get a building permit because they did not have a Board of Survey layout abutting on a road, they could go to the Board of Appeals. Mr. Walker said that if they were not ready to sell lots, it would be necessary to recite very carefully in the deed what the change in the deed, what the change in the street was, etc. Mr. Wrightington said it might require some thought but there was no reason why it could not be done. Mr. Miller suggested that the group retire for half an hour to discuss the matter and then to return to the Board with any r 508 DeCrist- af aro case. G.E. Doe conval- escent home. suggestions. The group retired at 9:15 P.M., but Mr. Wrightington remained. Mr. Wrightington said the Decristafaro suit was coming up before an auditor next week. He said the question had arisen as to whether the Town could afford a stenogra her or not. Mr. DeCristafaro is claiming $6800.00 of which 1200.00 represents the Vdarren Pipe Company's interest. He said the stenographer's bill would be 4400.00 or $500.00 and the attorney for the Warren Pipe Company is willing to pay one half the cost. The Board informed Mr. Wrightington that if he believed it necessary, he could go ahead with it. He said he would doso. The Chairman told the Board that Dr. Winthrop W. Harring- ton had telephonedhim and asked that the Board reconsider the application of Mrs. Gertrude B. Doe to maintain a convalescent home at 24 Maple Street, The Clerk told the Board that Pars. Doe had applied to the Board of Appeals for a permit to maintain a con- valescent home and that a permit had been denied. She also reminded the Board that Mr. Morse had brought in a State application for Mrs. Doe which she had'filed requesting per- mission to maintain a home for the aged on Maple Street and that upon the advice of the Town Counsel the Board had refused to approve the application. The Chairman asked Mr. Wrightington what could be done in the matter and he said that Mrs. Doe's only recourse was to the Board of Appeals inasmuch as her house is in a resi- dential zone, but where her petition had been denied there would not be much sense in making another application. Mr. Wrightington retired at 9:35 P.M. The Chairman told the Board that Mr. Beach had asked how the money received from school children for W.P.A. School lunches was to be handled. It was decided to let Mr. Beach lunch handle the money and to request him to submit a report on rponey receipts and expenditures each month. Letter was received from Mr. Beach requesting per- mission to purchase one Garland Range for natural gas, at $180.00 for the Franklin School Lunch Project. Mr. Rowse moved that the Board approve the purchase of the gas stove. Mr. Locke seconded the motion, and it was so voted. The meeting adjourned at 9:45 P.M. A true record, attest: all 1 1 1