Planning Board will oversee Square changes
Published on December 12th, 2001
STONEHAM, MA - The Planning Board changed its mind last week and agreed to accept special permit applications for housing units above retail space in Stoneham Square.
The Cahills, owners of McDonough’s Liquors, and Harry Paicopolos, owner of Highland Printing, will submit special permit applications on Jan. 9. Both property owners propose to tear down their existing buildings and replace them with four story buildings with ground level retail space and three floors of housing units. Plans for both buildings show 14 residential units.
The property owners first asked for a bylaw change. The Planning Board is reviewing zoning in the Square, but Chairman Gus Niewenhous said his Board was not ready for comprehensive change. Charlie Houghton, attorney for the Cahills and Paicopolos, was then instructed by the Planning Board to request a variance from the Board of Appeals to allow more than five units.
But after considering the purview of the Board of Appeals and the wording of the relevant section of the Zoning Bylaw, Planning Board members agreed that a special permit from them and a site plan from Selectmen would be the proper approval process.
The original sticking point was the limit of five residential units.
The logic behind that thinking goes like this:
Section 4.6.3.1 of Chapter 15 of the Town Code (the Zoning Bylaw) says that uses permitted in the Central Business District with a special permit from the Planning Board and a site plan from Selectmen are “Dwellings above the first floor of a building used for one of the uses allowed in 4.6.2.” Section 4.6.2 allows “All uses permitted in the Business District, subject to the same conditions.” Section 4.5.2 refers to the uses permitted in the Business District with site plan approval and lists them as “All of the uses and accessory uses permitted in the Neighborhood Business District, subject to the same conditions.” Section 4.4.3.2 lists uses permitted on a special permit and site plan in the Neighborhood Business District and states that for combined business-residential use “no more than five dwelling units shall be allowed in the building.”
Building Inspector Gene Argiro interprets the code this way.
But Niewenhous does not think the restriction in the Neighborhood Business District applies to uses in the Central Business District. And Town Counsel Bill Solomon agrees.
Many issues remain, from parking and safety to aesthetics, but at least now the path these property owners must walk is visible.
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