Land article limps to meeting
Published on October 8th, 2003
STONEHAM, MA - Denying a bid by Selectmen Cosmo Ciccarello and Bob Sweeney to squash an article that would donate land to the town, the Board of Selectmen voted 3-2 to include 17 warrant articles for October Town Meeting.
The questioned article, part of a three-article package, would donate a 1.2 acre wooded parcel of land at 51 Montvale Avenue to the Board of Selectmen for a nature park that would run adjacent to the proposed Tri-Community bike-path.
While Sweeney and Ciccarello were the only board members to vote against passing the article, nearly all of the Selectmen expressed their displeasure with knowing nothing about the item until a week ago.
"We just found out a week ago about it and personally I'm against taking anything off the tax rolls. Even though it's our article, I'm going to make a motion against it," said Ciccarello prior to last night's meeting.
Adding that Town Planner Michael Gallerani and Town Administrator David Berry knew about the article for months in advance, Sweeney warned board members that they knew to little about the article to include it.
"He's [Gallerani] been dealing with these people for over a year without our knowledge. I think there's just too many questions for us to accept this," said Sweeney.
According to Stoneham attorney Charlie Houghton, who represents Merle C. Eastman, the owner of 51 Montvale Ave., the town's citizens would have to pass a separate zoning article before the gift would be donated to the Board of Selectmen.
That article would seek to shift the zoning lines at the site of Montvale Garage and Stoneham Ford so that an area of 39,672 square feet would be designated as part of the Highway Business District. Currently, the site in question is partly zoned as a Residence A property and partly zoned in the Highway Business District.
Although the location has been used as a commercial business for decades, the lot is a preexisting nonconforming property that needs to be brought into compliance if Eastman wants to sell the property or construct additional buildings or parking.
"Most of what we're straightening out is already used for a commercial business, it's just preexisting non-conforming...If the zoning doesn't pass, we're not donating the land," commented Houghton.
According to Houghton, rezoning the land as part of the Highway Business District will not result in a large-scale development because the Sweet Water Brook, which snakes across the property, will prohibit such a project.
"If you have a property within 100 feet of a river, you can't do anything with it unless it was already developed. So we can use some of it and some of it we can't...Right now, the land's rented to Stoneham Ford for a long while. But could it be developed into something else down the road? Yeah," said Houghton.
Ken Pruitt, the executive director for the non-profit Massachusetts Association for Conservation Commissions and a member of the town's bike-path committee, also has little fear of a large-scale development.
"We're talking about a small area here. You're not going to be building a Wal-Mart there. If anything, you could slightly enlargen the parking lot or slightly enlargen a structure," the bike-path advocate explained.
Adding that the town's Conservation Commission has to approve any construction, Pruitt claims that there are more than enough safeguards in place to block a detrimental development.
"At present, if they wanted to do work there, they'd have to go before the Conservation Commission for a wetlands permit...We made it clear [to Eastman] that there was no guarantee a project would be approved. They will have to meet the same standards as any other project," Pruitt said.
Referred to as "the expert" on the proposed nature park, Pruitt claims the donation will be an excellent asset to the town.
"It's certainly not a big park but it would be a nice little oasis for people to stop and reflect a little before going back along the bike path," remarked Pruitt.
"The vision for the nature park is that it would not be like a golf-course covered with grass where you can feed pigeons. It would basically stay in the same state it's on now, which is a forrest with a brook running through it," he added.
Budget
While the Selectmen will make their recommendations on the warrant articles at their next meeting, the Board did vote unanimously to accept four budget articles.
The town will now be accountable for an additional $151,000 in FY04 for debt service underwriting fees and debt exclusion interest overestimates. Including those losses with additional expenses, such as the $4700 senior Christmas party recently approved by the Selectman, the FY04 budget will now fall approximately $1.88 million out of balance.
However, Berry believes that $136,787 in department cuts he recommended two weeks ago can now be avoided by using additional free cash. As a result of that approach, the town's stabilization account will be funded with approximately $1.1 million in October instead of $1.3 million.
Although Berry remained confident that the department cuts could be avoided, Selectman Charlie Smith wanted assurances that this action would result in a balanced budget for the rest of the year.
"When we first did this [budget in May], we had a so-called balanced budget. Can you tell us now that it's balanced" Smith asked Berry.
"Yes, I can as long as the State doesn't cut us more like they did last year," Berry responded in return.
In addition to voting to accept $1.084 million as the figure that will go into the town's stabilization account, the Selectmen also approved spending $60,000 for a new Fire truck and $32,000 for a DPW dump truck.
Stonegate
Stoneham Attorney Steven Ciccatelli, who represents Stoneham resident Ben Caggiano, also unveiled plans to construct an eleven-unit town house development at the site of the Spot Pond Hotel. According to Ciccatelli, the development will span 1.3 acres of land and contain plenty of open green space.
"The hotel would be dismantled and what would be put in place is an 11-unit condominium complex...From the town's point of view, it would clean up the entryway to the town," explained Ciccatelli, who added that the development would bring an additional $40,000-50,000 in annual tax revenues to Stoneham.
However, before the project can go forward, the town's citizens must approve a warrant article seeking to rezone property at 596 Main Street from the Highway Business District to the Residence B District.
According to Ciccarello, he has received several phone calls from abutters who favor the project.
"Let me just say for the record that I got three phone calls about this project and they were all for it...They said anything would be better than what's there," said Ciccarello.
Subscribe and get Home Delivery of The Independent
Save 36% off the newstand price — that's like 18 FREE issues!