HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-10-03 Planning Board Minutes Town of North Andover
PLANNING BOARD
John Simons, Chairman Eitan Goldberg
Peter Boy ntonAaron Preston
Jennifer Luz Christine Allen,Associate
TuesdaE October 3, 2017(a), 7p.m. 120 Main Street Town Hall North Andover,MA 01845
1 Present: J. Simons, P. Boynton,J. Luz,E. Goldberg, A. Preston, C. Allen
2 Absent:
3 Staff Present: J. Enright, R. Oldham, B. Wolstromer
4
5 J. Simons, Chairman: The Planning Board meeting for Tuesday, October 3,2017 was called to order at 7 p.m.
6
7 BOND RELEASE:
8 101 + 115 Sutton Hill Road,Tom Zahoruiko: Site Opening Bond in the amount of$5,000 and Roadway
9 Bond for$2,500
10 R. Oldham: The Applicant has provided an as-built, certification letter and all other documents for the bond
11 release. I recommend full release of both bonds,
12 MOTION: P. Boynton made a motion to approve the bond release for 101+115 Sutton Hill Road,Tom Zahoruiko
13 $5,000 for the Site Opening Bond and$2,500 for the Roadway Bond. A. Preston seconded the motion. The vote
14 was 5-0, unanimous in favor.
15
16 ANR
17 67 Riverview Street
18 R. Oldham: (Displayed locus showing proximity to the Merrimack River)The Applicant is trying to create a non-
19 buildable lot"Not a Building Lot"(B-1);the lot does not meet the dimensional requirements of the zoning district.
20 Shawn Ferris, owner, 67 Riverview Street: I am selling 67 Riverview in order to invest in my future development
21 plan for the street.As part of the proposed plan,I am looking to join the newly created lot B-I with 71 Riverview
22 Street to add frontage and lot size, if combined today it will still not meet zoning requirement,however once the
23 71 is combined with 73 Riverview,they will meet the zoning requirements of the district.The development plan is
24 to split 73 Riverview into 3 separate lots and update the existing home and add two additional multi-family houses
25 on the two other created lots. As pail of this project I will be addressing roadway improvements. The intent is to
26 extend Riverview Street creating a hammerhead turnaround; we would also like to address a uniform 8 ft. sound
27 barrier fence behind these homes due to the train tracks. I would like to separate the front portion of the lot in the
28 future along the Merrimack River to create a trail for the Trails of North Andover to Osgood Landing.
29 MOTION: E. Goldberg made a motion to for the planner to sign the ANR, as amended for clarity to show the old
30 lot line, for 67 Riverview Street,North Andover, MA, J. Luz seconded the motion. The vote was 5-0, unanimous
31 in favor.
32
33 PUBLIC HEARINGS
34 CONTINUED PUBLIC HEARING: 0 Great Pond Road and 1193 Great Pond Road,North
35 Andover Solar,LLC: Application for a Land Disturbance Permit in connection with development of a
36 1.1 megawatt,ground-mounted photovoltaic array over approximately 5 acres of a 33.26 acre parcel
37 located across Great Pond Road from the Brooks School. The property is located in the Residential 2
38 (R-2)Zone.
39 R. Oldham: All documents have been completed, stormwater review has been finalized;the Fire Department has
40 signed off on the access;the Building Commissioner has supplied a determination stating it is an allowed use by
41 right under M.G.L. Section 3 c.40a under educational use; there are no further outstanding issues.
42 J. Simons: They are building on stecp slopes; what was the steepest slope?
43 R, Oldham: Section 8,2 states that slopes greater than 3:1 shall be protected,but the existing slopes are less than
44 3:1. The Applicant has also indicated that the tree clearing should not result in much land disturbance, stumps will
Town of Norlh Andover
PLANNING BOAR
John Simons, Chairman •' Eitan Goldberg
Peter Boynton "� ��� � Vim'', Aaron Preston
Jennifer Lanz
Christine Arlen,Associate
Tuesday October 3, 2017(a? 7 p.m. 120 Main Street Town Hall,North Andover,NIA 01845
45 be left in place to limit disturbance, and they are not re-grading the site to retain as much existing vegetation as
46 possible to maintain a stabilized slope.
47 J. Simons: This should be a taxable property?
48 B. Axelman: We received authorization over a year and a half ago at Town Meeting,to negotiate a PILOT
49 agreement(payment in lieu of taxes agreement)to cover personal property taxes payable by the project. We have
50 authorization to enter into this agreement providing tax revenue to the Town.
51 J. Simons: Are you going to end up paying what you would have paid for real estate taxes on this property given
52 it's not a private use; it's a commercial use?You can't get the tax credit unless it's owned by a profit making
53 entity;will the town get the equivalent of what it would have gotten if it was a commercial entity?
54 B,Axelman: The solar project will pay personal property taxes; whether this effects the underlying tax exemption
55 of the land is a question for the Assessors;I don't have a legal opinion on that; solar projects are typically taxed as
56 personal property not real estate thus we enter into a PILOT agreement to cover all of those payments. Solar
57 projects cost a lot up front and depreciate fairly quickly so we enter into a PILOT to smooth those payments over
58 the life of the project.
59 J. Simons: Why are the arrays longer on one side and shorter on the other?I think you'll have erosion problems;
60 what happens if you do?How many acres of trees are being removed?
61 B.Axelman: It has to do with the shading of the tall trees along Great Pond Road. We are under jurisdiction of the
62 Conservation Commission as well, and will have to comply with all applicable state and local stormwater and.
63 erosion control requirements. If there is an issue we will fix it. We are removing about three acres of trees. This
64 project was originally approved under a different solar company; the prgyect was never built; Brooks School rebid
65 the project;this Board's permit had expired and Conservation's original permit was still in place-this is our last
66 extension,thus we are reapplying before Planning.
67 MOTION: A. Preston made a motion to close the Public Hearing for 0 Great Pond Road and 1193 Great Pond
68 Road,North Andover,MA. J. Luz seconded the motion. The vote was 5-0, unanimous in favor.
69 MOTION: A. Preston made a motion to approve the Land Disturbance Permit, as amended, for 0 Great Pond.
70 Road and 1193 Great Pond Road,North Andover,MA. P. Boynton seconded the motion. The vote was 5-0,
71 unanimous in favor.
72
73 CONTENUED PUBLIC IIEA.RING: 122 Foster Street,North Andover,Varsity Wireless,Brian
74 Grossman: Application for Wireless Facilities Special Permit—Site Plan Review snider sections 8.9 and
75 8.3, 10.3 and 10.31 of the North Andover Zoning Bylaw. Applicant proposes to construct, operate and maintain a
76 130 foot monopole tower(135 feet to top of faux branches)with supporting equipment located in the Residential 1.
77 (R-1)Zone.
78 R. Oldham: There are no administrative updates;the Applicant has provided photographic simulations of the
79 balloon test.
80 Brian Grossman,Anderson&Krieger: We constructed the balloon test for the Board on site and have provided
81 photos and a reap. (Described photo simulations of balloon test)
82 J. Simons: How many sites did you consider and when are you before the Zoning Board of Appeals?
83 B. Grossman: We evaluated approximately 20 different locations; we meet with the ZBA October 10,2017.
84 E. Goldberg: How many households are you covering not including people traveling on the road?
85 B. Grossman: In total, offload is going to be about 1,700 households between the couple sectors and overall
86 sectors Verizon has 4,600-4,700 households.
87 E. Goldberg: Colocation is our bylaw requirement which we can waive if we want; it doesn't specify to
88 accommodate five arrays. Does 100 ft.work for Verizon?
2
Town of North Andover
PLANNING BOARD
John Simons, 4C'hairnnan Eitan Goldberg
• Aaron Preston
Peter Boynton
Christine Allen Associate
Jenny fer Luz
t
Tuesda V October 3 201? 7 p,ni. 120 Main Street Town Mall North Andover MA 01845
89 Chris Swiniarski: We're at 117 ft. right now that was our optimal height; our engineers are analyzing whether we
90 can go lower and still be effective;you get to a point where the trade-off makes it nonviable.I don't have that
91 report.
92 J. Simons: I presume over time the capacity increases; how does this impact your decision making?
93 B. Grossman: You are correct. The difference is the exponential increase in the amount of usage;there's a lot
94 more strain being put on them now as we move to faster speeds, data movement, etc. The other trend is to add
95 more capacity through the number of antennae.
96 [Continued to the October 17, 2017 Planning Board ineeting]
97
98 DISCUSSIONS
99 Overlay District(MMOD)Discussion,Hoofs Johnston
100 J. Enright: There is a memo to the BOS in response to some questions;the Applicant provided a new Deck with
101 revisions to their timeline and energy information. The Applicant has reached out to National Grid who will
102 provide a capacity and availability of capacity study that will take 3-6 months to confirm.
103 D. Leauy: I am joined by our energy engineer-Mike Thornton, PE,Vanderweil.Engineers. We are studying large
104 indoor growing facilities,(1) a large indoor cannabis facility in Canada,(2)a large R&D indoor growing facility '
105 and (3) an indoor vertical farming facility.
106 J. Simons: What is a vertical farming facility?
107 D. Leary: This is a 1.00,000 sq, ft. footprint with 25-30 ft.tall structures built inside where they are growing tiered
108 greens i.e. 8-10 tiers high. It is indoor culture; located in New Jersey;half million to a million sq ft.
109 P. Boynton: How large is the cannabis facility you are reviewing?
110 D. Leary: It is approximately one million sq. ft.
111 D. Leary: We are investigating further MEPA requirements; there may be certain aspects that may trigger further
112 requirements.
113 M. Thornton, PE: The letter from.National Grid is a standard letter addressing the fact that a customer is seeking
114 additional power;we've worked at this site for over twenty years. Previously,when Lucent owned the site,we did
115 a lot of the engineering for the electrical infrastructure and provided MEP services. We will put a load letter
1.16 together for National Grid to tell them site loads were previously 25 MW range;the infrastructure was sized for
117 twice that capacity. When we look at the energy loads expected for the grow facility, it's in the range of 30 watts
118 per sq. ft. and about 30 MW based on managing the load of the LED lighting;the infrastructure within the site is j
119 more than capable to handle that and there's an extensive infrastructure.
120 D. Leary: This project is capitalized in two components,the equity brought by the owners of the property. There
121 will be a certain amount of debt brought in i.e. equipment financing. There will be three types of tenants: (1)
122 Licensed Uses:retail,manufacturing, cultivation craft and testing laboratory; (2)Non-Licensed users: (not
123 handling cannabis) and(3)Non-Licensed users performing with licenses to handle cannabis.
124 E. Goldberg: I'm not sure you will be able to handle cannabis unless you have a license. i
125 D. Leary: An example might be an LED lighting manufacturer who may be invited to the licensed grower's
126 facility to conduct LED experiments.
127 J. Simons: We would perhaps approve a certain amount of square footage under a specific type of use.
1.28 E. Goldberg: I see this as it being an Overlay District.
129 D.Leary: Relative to the draft bylaw,we don't have a lot of comments. Our team thinks it's exemplary; if there
130 was an opportunity to have a working group to discuss these we would prefer that.
131 BOARD: The Board felt a working group was a good idea; J. Luz is happy to participate.The Board should
132 discuss higher level ideas prior to the details.
3
J u wn orf North Andover
PLANNING BOARD
John Simons, Chairman • - Eitcan Goldberg
Peter Boynton � �I�;��� ��
• Aaron Preston
•
/ Christine Allen,AssociateJenn
Jennifer Litz
TriesdaV October 3 2017 7 p.m. 120 Main Street Town Haan North Andover MA 01845
133
1.34 Framework for Recreational/Commercial Marijuana Zoning Bylaw 1600 Osgood StreetAMedical Marijuana
135 T. Enright: Presented a typical timeline for pre-Town Meeting tasks. The Board of Selectmen will be discussing
136 the types of marijuana uses and the potential for prohibiting of limiting all or some uses.
137 P. Boynton: The Town has given two indications of an opinion on this topic at both the general election and at
138 Town Meeting where it failed to pass. That emphasizes there is a need for public engagement.
139 J. Simons: We need to get the structured bylaw on the table first;we meed the discussion to be robust,transparent
140 and complete; I agree we want this fully vetted at a public forum, noticed publicly and via social media.
141 BOARD: Discussed the land use policy questions referenced in. S. Egan memo dated 8/31/17 and the requested
1.42 discussion points be incorporated in the Bylaw framework to be discussed in detail at the next meeting. A.
143 suggestion was made to establish a working group. The Board will decide on that at the next meeting.
144
145 Master Plan Update
146 J. Enright: Presented the Master Plan Public Forum. The Public Forum will be hold on November 2, 2017 at the
147 North Andover High School Cafeteria, 430 Osgood Street,North Andover,MA @ 6:30 pm.
148
149 MINUTES APPROVAL
150 MOTION: E. Goldberg made a motion to approve the September 19, 2017 minutes. P.Boynton seconded the
151 motion. The vote was 5-0, unanimous in favor.
152
153 Annual.Lakefront Clean Up: P. Boynton noted the annual Lakefront cleanup is scheduled for October 21,2017
154 @ 9:30 a.m. All are welcome to come and help. Refreshments will be provided,
155
156 ADJOURNMENT
157 MOTION: P. Boynton made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by J. Luz. The vote was
158 5-0,unanimous in favor. Meeting adjourned @ 10:05 p.m.
159
160 MEETING MATERIALS:Planning Board Meeting Agenda October 3,2017;DRAFT Planning Board Minutes September 19,2017;Bond
161 Release 10I + 115 Sutton Hill Road Tom Zahoruiko:Recorded Decision,Certification Letter 103 Sutton 150516,Certification
162 Letter 101Sutton 170906,Certification Letter 97 Sutton 170906,Capstone Bond Releases 17091.9,As Built_Subdivision 170906;ANR
1.63 67 Riverview Street:Plan,LOCUS,Application 170918 ;CONTINUED PUBLIC HEARING:0 Great Pond Road and 1193 Great Pond
164 Road North Andover Solar LLC: Site Plans Revised 201708,LOCUS,20170731 Brooks Solar visual.Study-Interactive PDF,Building
165 Commissioner Memo_171003;CONTINUED PUBLIC HEARING: 122 Foster Street,North Andover,varsity Wireless,Brian
166 Grossman:Site Plans(Rev I) 170712,Monopine Examples,Locus,Balloon Test 09282017;1600 Osgood Street/Medical Marijuana,
167 Overlay District(MMOD)Discussion,Books Johnston:The Deck Rev 4,The Deck Rev 4 Edits,Short video on Indoor Growing and
168 Energy,MIW Letter to BOS_09291.7,Commercial Use Discussion Points, 170925 Nat'l Grid memo re power requirements, 1600 Osgood
169 Discussion 100317;Framework for Recreational/Commercial Marijuana Zoning$ylaw:Town Meeting Timeline,Selectmen Memo,
170 Permitted Uses,NorthAnclover_Marrjuana1000_36x44(2)(1),NorthAndover Marijuana500 36x44(2),municipal-guidance-august-2016,
171 Memo re Framework Marijuana.Zoning Bylaw,Framework for RecreationalCommercial Marijuana Bylaw;MasterPlan Update:Public
172 Forum#1 Flier,
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