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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1957-06-10PLANNING BOARD MEETING June 10, 1957 A regular meeting of the Lexington Planning Board was held in the Town Engineer's Room, Town Office Building on June 10, 1957 at 7:30 p.m. Present were Chairman Grindle, Members Abbott, Burnell, Jaquith and Soule, and Planning Director Snow. Town Counsel Stevens was present from 10:00 to 10:00 p.m. The Board first considered a draft of a letter which was addressed to the Selectmen and which set forth the Planning Board's decision that it could not submit to a Town Meeting a recommendation of favorable action on the amendments to the Zoning By-law as pro- posed in the notice for the public hearing held on June 6, 1957• At $:05 p.m. the Board held a public hearing relative to the application for approval of a defini- tive subdivision plan entitled "Battle View Park Sec- tion Two Lexington -Mass." Twelve persons attended the hearing which was opened by Chairman Grindle by read- ing the notice of the hearing as it was sent to all abutting property owners and as was published in the May 23, 1957 issue of the Lexington Minute -man. After discussing the procedure to be followed in conducting the hearing, Mr. Ralph Frissore, speak- ing for the applicant presented and discussed the sub- division plan. Messrs. Leonard C. Dozier, Thomas G. Magner, Glenn C. Perduyn, John F. Nolan, and Harvey H. Horn of 273, 259, 280, 262 and 272 Woburn Street, re- spectively, raised questions in regard to the storm drainage system on the proposed Rumford Road extension and the connection of said drainage to a system on Woburn Street. It was pointed out by the Board that the plan, including the drainage system, had been approved by the Superintendent of Public Works. Mr. Perduyn asked when the required worts in Rumford Road would be completed. It was pointed out by the Board that said work was required to be completed within one year from the date of approval of the subdivision plan by the Planning Board. At 8:25 p.m. Supt. Gayer came to the meeting to answer questions in regard to provisions for said storm drainage and stated that some of the surface water fluty- , ing over Woburn Street in the vicinity of Rumford Road was caused by a plugged culvert under Woburn Street, that this culvert was to be cleaned out immediately, REGIONAL SHOPPING CENTER PROPOSAL BATTLE VIEW PARK that to his knowledge no drains existed in Woburn Street ' in the vicinity of Rumford Road to which the latter storm drains could connect at present,and that the drains in Rumford Road were required to be installed so that connections to a Woburn Street system could be made in the future. There being no further questions, Chairman Grindle asked for an indication of who wished to be re- corded in favor of or opposed to approval of the plan. Six persons wished to be recorded as in favor, none opposed. The hearing was declared closed at $:40 p.m. APPROPRIATION At 9:00 p.m. at the request of the Appropriation CONTTITTEE Committee, the Planning Board met in joint session with the Committee and the Selectmen in the Selectmen's Room to discuss in general the Filene's proposal for a regional shopping center and the Planning Board's de- cision not to request the Selectmen to call a special town meeting to take action on the proposed amendments to the Zoning By-law. The joint meeting adjourned at 9:45 p.m. at which time the Planning Board returned to its own meeting. Mr. Abbott left the Planning Board meeting at this time. FORMS A Taken under consideration next were the follow- ' ing Form A applications for determination of Planning Board jurisdiction: #57-54, submitted June 10, 1957 by August and Anna Nicklarson by Albert W. Wunderly, Atty., plan entitled "Plan of Land in Lexington,Mass." Scale 1" = 401, dated July 27, 1955, Miller and Nylander, Civil Engr's & Surveyors -Lexington. #57-55, submitted by John J. Carroll for the Town of Lexington, plan entitled "Plan of Drain Easement between Garfield & Poplar Sts. in Lex- ington, Mass." Scale 1" = 30', dated June 6, 1957, Richard J. Gayer, Town Engineer. #57-56, submitted by John J. Carroll for the Town of Lexington, plan entitled "Plan of Trunk Sewer Easement on Easterly Side of Northern Circumferential Highway in Lexington -Mass." Scale l" a 40', dated June 6, 1957, Richard J. Gayer, Town Engineer. It was moved, seconded and unanimously VOTED: That the plans accompanying Form A appli- cations #57-54, #57-55, and #57-56 be signed bearing the endorsement "Lexington Planning Board approval under the subdivi- sion control law not required." ' Read to the Board was a May 31, 1957 letter from the Town Clerk attaching a copy of a letter from Alan G. Adams regarding his resignation as a member of the Lexington Planning Board. Read to the Board also, approved by it and signed by the chairman was the draft of a letter dated June 10, 1957 and addressed to the Selectmen calling their attention to the fact that the membership of the Board has now been reduced from six to five pursuant to the vote of the Special Town Meeting held on November 19, 1956. Approved by the Board were the Minutes of the meetings of May 13 and 31, 1957• Approved also were the following bills pre- sented for payment: Graphic Microfilm, Inc., lantern slides -49.00; Mrs. G. Buttaro, mimeographing copies of hearing for proposed rezoning --$14.85; Bruce E. Howlett, professional services, period ending June 7, 1957 and car mileage --$213.00. At 10:15 p.m. Mr. Stevens came to the Planning Board meeting and gave to the Board duplicate instru- ments executed by Ernest J. Corrigan, dated June 5, 1957, assuming to the Town all the obligations of the applicant fot approval of the subdivision plan to- gether with bond executed by Mr. Corrigan as principal and the Continental Casualty Company as surety for the sum of $51,000 securing the carrying out of the obli- gations by Mr. Corrigan. All matters appearing to be in order in regard to the Loring Hill Estates Section One subdivision, it was moved by Mr. Jaquith, seconded by Mr. Burnell and unanimously VOTED: That a definitive subdivision plan en- titled "Loring, Hill Estates Section One Lexington -Mass.", dated April 12, 1957, having been submitted to the Board by Frances May Baskin on April 29, 1957, accompanied by an application for ap- proval of definitive plan, Form C, dated March 20, 1957, and subsequent thereto all the lands within the sub- division having been acquired by Ernest J. Corrigan by deed recorded in Middle- sex South District Registry of Deeds on May 21, 1957, Book 8953, Page 25, and said Ernest J. Corrigan having assumed all, obligations of the applicant, be and hereby is approved. ALAN G. ADAMS RESIGNATION MINUTES BILLS LORING HILL ESTATES SECTION 1 BATTLE GREEN Taken under consideration next was the appli. ' VILLAGE cation of Eleanor L. Ross for approval of the defini- SEC. 2 tive plan of Battle Green Village Section Two dated June 7, 1957• It was decided to hold a public hear- ing on said application on July 1, 1957 at 8:00 p.m. HAWTHORNE Taken under consideration also was the appli- ACRES cation of Esco Builders Corp. for approval of defini- tive Plan dated June 10, 1957. It was decided to hold a public hearing July 1, 1957 at 8:30 p.m. BOARD OF Mr. Stevens left the meeting at 10:30 p.m. APPEALS at which time the Board took under consideration the notices of petitions to be heard by the Board of Appeals on June 11, 1957• The Board decided to take no action on said petitions. The Board completed the drafting of a letter to the Selectmen in regard to the regional shopping center proposal. See addendum. The meeting adjourned at 11:30 p.m. /S-0� - 6 4���ht' I Levi G. Burnell, Jr. Clerk ADDENDUM May 31, 1957 Thomas S. Grindle, Chairman Lexington Planning Board 29 Bloomfield st . , Lexington, Massachusetts Dear Tom': Please find attached hereto copy of letter from Alan G. Adams regarding his resigna- tion as a member of the Lexington Planning Board. Yours very truly, /sl James J. Carroll Town Clerk ' Mr. James J. Carroll, Town Clerk May 31, 1957 Town Office Building, Lexington 73, I'ass. Dear Mr. Carroll: I herewith tender my resignation from the Lexington Planning Board to take effect immediately. Yours very truly, /s/ Alan G. Adams June 10, 1957 Board of Selectmen Town Office Building Lexington 732 Massachusetts Gentlemen: The Planning Board has received from the Town Clerk a letter notifying the Board of the resignation of Alan G. Adams as a member of said board and attach- ing thereto a copy of Mr. Adams' letter of resigna- tion., The Board wishes to call your attention to the fact that the membership of the Board has now been reduced from six to five pursuant to the vote of the Special Town Meeting held on November 19, 1956. Very truly yours, LEXINGTON PLANNING BOARD /s/ Thomas S. Grindle, Chairman cc: Town Clerk Town Counsel June 10, 1957 Board of Selectmen ' Town Office Building Lexington, Mass. Dear Sirs: The Planning Board at a meeting held Friday night June 7, 1957, following the public hearing on June 6, 1957, decided that it could not submit to a Town Meeting a recom- mendation of favorable action on the amendments to the Zon- ing By-law, as proposed in the notice for the hearing. The above decision was based on information pre- sented at the hearing together with other data which the Board has assembled through its own studies. The shopping center as now .proposed presents certain basic problems. Un- less these problems can be solved, it is the unanimous opinionof the Board that it is not to the Town's best interest to have a shopping center located in the area pro- posed. The problems are: 1. Traffic. The extent of automobile traffic, cus- tomer and empfoyee, to and from the proposed shopping , center cannot be determined with certainty at the present time. The volume of traffic will depend upon the size of the center, as it developes, and the various facilities available there. Based on estimates, it appears that the major part of the traffic would use Routes 2 and 128. How- ever, it also appears that there would be substantial use of local streets not only by local residents but also by resi- dents in nearby communities. Under the traffic pattern as now proposed, some of this traffic may be expected to arrive or depart from the center via Spring Street, Lincoln and Shade Streets and Concord Avenue. The shopping center traffic on these streets would have to be assimilated with other traffic on these streets. At the present time, the Board is in doubt as to whether this can be done without overloading these streets, particularly if the center should be fully developed. It has been suggested that a system of one way streets might be established, but one way streets in residential areas are difficult to maintain in practice. There also is a question of whether, if the pro- posed center should be fully developed, our main local roads such as Waltham Street, Marrett Road, Massachusetts Avenue, Bedford Street and Woburn Street could assimilate the additional traffic without serious overloading at peak ' periods. The Board recognizes that some of these streets would have an increase in traffic if the proposed center should be located in a nearby community rather than in Lex- ington. However, if this should happen, all the traffic would not be converging on one point in Lexington. At the present time, the proposed shopping center has only one assured means of access, i.e. from Spring Street. The proposed traffic pattern at the entrance to the shopping center presents the problem of traffic to and from the center having to cut across through -traffic on Spring Street. This is not a desirable situation from a long-range planning standpoint. 2. General Office Building Use. The proposed amend- ments, if adopted, would permit the erection of one or more non-professional office buildings as part of the center provided permission is granted by the Board of Appeals. The Planning Board believes that a decision on whether the area involved actually should be used for a non-professional office building should be made by the town meeting members and not by the Board of Appeals and that such a decision should be made only when the facts on the specific project are known. 3. Size of Proposed Shopping Center. The proposed shopping center, if developed to its maximum capacity, be- cause of its large size and the number of separate stores, shops and other facilities presents the problem of whether it is in the Town's interest to have such a large scale development of this type in the area involved. In this connection, the Board wishes to point out that the proposed Zoning By -Law amendments do not give the Town control over the number of separate stores, shops and other facilities which might be operated in the center. The shopping center could develop into a business area having more stores and shops than now exist in our general business district in the center of town without any other facilities in the center. In view of the foregoing, the Board makes no request to you at this time to call a special town meeting to take action on the proposed amendments to the Zoning By -Law. It may be that by a further study of the t raffic problems, a reduction in the land area involved and changes in some of the uses proposed, a solution of the above problems can be obtained. The Board is sending a copy of this letter to William Filene's Sons Company and will be glad to discuss the shop- ping center matter further with them if they desire to do so. Respectfully submitted, LEXINGTON PLANNING BOARD /s/ Thomas S. Grindle, Chairman