Developer Proposes Senior-ish Housing At McLean; Residents Push Added Affordability

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Photo: A photo/map of the “senior driven” development on McLean Hospital.
A luxury residential developer came before the Belmont Planning Board on Tuesday, Jan. 16 with a proposal to construct a major senior-ish project on the McLean Hospital property comprised of 34 townhouses and 70 garden-style units in a parcel zoned 20 years ago for comprehensive long-term elder care.
While West Concord-based Northland Residential (which developed the 121-unit The Woodlands on Belmont Hill) contends the proposal is a better fit than an earlier but failed 482 unit, 600,000 sq.-ft. project approved in 2001, several residents and members of the town’s Housing Trust are already pushing for a greater emphasis on affordability that would serve an aging Belmont population.
“There are 1,000 cost burdened seniors living in Belmont and that number is expected to grow,” said Gloria Leipzig of the Belmont Housing Authority and the Housing Trust. “There is a need for affordable senior housing and I think we need to … see this as an opportunity and try and figure out a way to increase the likelihood of more affordable housing on the site.
Flanked by Michele Gougeon, McLean’s chief operating officer, Northland President and CEO John Dawley said the yet unnamed project will be “senior directed” that is unlike the “Continuing Care Retirement Community” concept which includes independent and assisted living as well as nursing home care that the parcel is currently zoned.
“It will have a floor plan that is attractive to 55-years and older,” said Dawley.
Created on November 1999 after Town Meeting approved new zoning for the property that May, a memorandum of agreement between the town and McLean rezoned 238 acres into specific uses including housing, open space, research facilities and senior living.
Since the agreement, most of the land approved for redevelopment would become part of The Woodlands at Belmont Hill, a townhouse development. One of the two final open parcels is the senior-oriented Zone 3 consists of nearly 13 acres near the corner of South Pleasant and Trapelo and a similarly-sized Zone 4 set aside for Research and Development.
Gougeon told the board the hospital will develop Zone 4 into an 86,000 sq.-ft. child and adolescence academic center and then later add a small R&D center. But the parcel’s build-out “will take some time” as the hospital will need to fund raise before building can commence, she said.
In Zone 3, the Northland plans call for 104 independent, non-age restricted units. Thirty-four will be two-to-three bedroom townhouses like those in the Woodlands and two four-story “flat style” buildings with seven to nine units per floor consisting of either two bedrooms or one bedroom and den garden-style apartments. There will be senior or elderly care services as part of the development, just grounds and maintenance staff. Under the current plan, the affordable housing component will remain at nine percent of total units which calculates to nine units.
The development would be situated on the ridge above a proposed assisted living facility along South Pleasant Street. The location has utilities in place and will be ready to be built. As proposed, the completed project will bring in an additional $1.4 million into town coffers, not including permits and fees. 
Dawley said the demographics of those who’ll be purchasing these homes – mostly those 55 and over with no dependent children living with them –  show that they aren’t necessarily downsizing, most will be buying without a mortgage and own a second home elsewhere. Similar townhouse units in the Woodlands run in the $1.2 million range.
The project will need two-thirds approval from Town Meeting as the complex alters existing town zoning requirements. But Dawley said those changes to the bylaw will be “very modest …” as the Northland plan “comports with the zoning very very well.” 
The next step for the board will be “a deep dive” into the zoning and debate the merits of those changes, said Board Chair Chuck Clark, noting the “devil’s in the details.” He also said the changes to the zoning will be presented to the annual Town Meeting as two distinct amendments.
One area that many in the audience of the nearly filled the Board of Selectmen’s room hoped the board and developer would discuss was the project’s affordability component. For Roger Colton, a former member of the Housing Trust, Northland is seeking significant changes to the current bylaw “but for affordable housing, which stays the same.”
The nine units set aside for affordable housing and the acceptance of owners making up to 120 percent of area median income” is unacceptable,” said Colton.
Rachel Heller (who is the CEO of the affordable housing advocacy organization CHAPA) said the Housing Trust is excited by the start of the planning process “because there is a lot that we can do together. McLean wants to be able to sell this land … the town needs more affordable housing so let’s put our heads together and work on it and let us use [the state’s Local Initiative Program] and really maximize the amount of affordable homes that we get out of [the development].”
The Local Initiative helps residential developers and towns develop a plan where a certain percentage of the units are affordable so a project can obtain zoning approval.

Letter To The Editor: Planning Board’s Meeting Date Is Quite Shocking

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Photo: Yom Kippur begins at sunset on Tuesday.

Dear Planning Board,

As you probably know by now, the League of Women Voters of Belmont has been studying Marijuana in Belmont since September 2017. We, as a committee, try to stay involved and aware in all aspects of planning for Marijuana in Belmont. We happened to have a meeting last Tuesday. One person heard a rumor that there was a September Planning Board meeting soon, but no one knew the date. We went online, to the Planning Board website, and couldn’t find a date or agenda. One member of our committee watched the video of your last meeting to get more information but only got the date, no specifics.

So we were all quite surprised, when we got the paper on Thursday, that the big final marijuana meeting for the Planning Board is Tuesday! And, it happens to fall on one of the two most religious days of the year for Jews, Yom Kippur, so there
is no way for me to attend. Others in our committee have multiple engagements this week, so it seems unlikely that anyone from the League of Women Voters will be able to attend in person.

Since reading [media reports], and finally finding the agenda online, it seems that this is a Public Hearing on the Adult Use Marijuana Overlay District and might be the final time the public gets to comment before the November Special Town Meeting. If true, that seems quite shocking. How can you release information so close to the date of the meeting, held the public hearing on it on such an important religious holiday?

While I am writing, you might want to be aware that the League is holding a Marijuana Info Session on Thursday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. in the Community Room at Chenery. We hope that someone from your committee might be able to join us, but most of the focus will be on the upcoming Special Election Ballot Question.

Bonnie Friedman (Town Meeting Member, Precinct 3) 

Belmont LWV Marijuana Study Committee

Planning Board Expands South Pleasant District With Eye On Waverley Square

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Photo: Andy Rojas at the July Planning Board meeting with the proposed plans for an assisted living center.

With an eye on the future of a “new” Waverley Square that will be unrecognizable “in 10 years,” the Belmont Planning Board has expanded the overlay district along South Pleasant Street it approved in July at its meeting on Sept. 6.

Originally running from 1010 Pleasant St. to Citywide Subaru at 790 Pleasant St., the new district will be enlarged to include the land along Pleasant Street to Trapelo Road including the Getty service station, Star Market to the Belmont Car Wash. 

“It makes perfect sense to include Shaws and the Car Wash,” said Charles Clark, chair of the board, as potential development could come to the doorstep of Waverley Square, the least active of Belmont’s three business centers. He said action by the board could result in major changes in the next decade at the transportation hub of west Belmont. 

Clark said he has been receiving positive feedback from the developer of a proposed assisted living center at 1010 Pleasant, the Belmont Housing Trust and from those who have promoted mixed commercial/residential development along the stretch of land.

Zoned as a Local Business District 2 (LB2), the Planning Board is advocating overlaying more lenient LB1 zoning regulations which will allow developers somewhat greater leeway on what is constructed without the need to enter the at times laborious “special permit” process when they exceed the zoning restrictions. 

Andy Rojas, the architect for Belmont Manor which presented preliminary plans to develop the assisted living center in July, pointed out that as currently designed meets all but one of the dimensional zoning regulations – such as maximum lot coverage, minimum open space and building height – under the LB1 regulations, while missing the mark on most of the restriction in an LB2 district. 

If the board makes the change, “we’re in compliance” which will allow for the facility – a first in Belmont – to be built in a timely manner, said Rojas. It will also allow similar establishments such as independent living, nursing and full-care facilities to be proposed. 

“Yes, I can see that work,” said Clark. 

Advocates for greater construction of affordable housing are speaking up for the overlay district. Rachel Heller for the Housing Trust noted that in an LB1 district, multi-family, assisted living, and mixed-use housing would be allowed. It could also result in developers being offered increased density and height to developers in exchange for additional affordable housing units and/or affordability levels. 

The Trust also hopes the Board should consider creating a 40R district which provides financial incentives for communities that create zoning overlay districts that encourage smart growth housing development.

The Planning Board will next meet on Tuesday, Sept. 18 at Town Hall. 

Brown Bag Talk: How Marijuana Regs Will Impact Belmont

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Photo: Sale of marijuana begins 

The League of Women Voters in Belmont is holding a Brown Bag discussion on local marijuana regulations with members of the Belmont Board of Health and Planning Board on Friday, March 9, from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room.

The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission released draft regulations and has concluded hearings and discussions on these regulations. They are due to release final State Regulations by March 15. Licensing for facilities starts April 1 and retail businesses can open in communities that allow the sale of pot on July 1 with Belmont delaying openings until Dec. 31. How will this affect Belmont?

Bring your lunch; beverages and cookies provided. The meeting is open to the public.

Questions should be sent to BrownBag@BelmontLWV.org

Second Time A Charm: Sanderson Appointed To Planning Board

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Photo: The Planning Board earlier this year.

For Edward “Sandy” Sanderson, the second time was a charm as the planning professional was appointed as an associated member of the Belmont Planning Board by a unanimous vote of the Belmont Board of Selectmen on Monday, Oct. 30. 

Sanderson’s selection came six weeks since the Selectmen voted 2-1 to deny him a seat on the Board. The change now is the Planning Board has undergone a radical transformation since the mass resignation of three long-serving members this month. 

The Planning Board Chair Charles “Chuck” Clark asked the same board that skipped over Sanderson to select two other candidates – re-appointing sitting member Raffi Manjikian and selecting Dalton Road’s Stephen Pinkerton on Sept. 11 – recommended Sanderson for the associate membership as being “the most qualified candidate” of the resumes he had seen. 

Sanderson was a city planner for the City of Los Angeles and is currently an urban and transportation planner in the Boston office of a New York-based civil engineering firm.  Sanderson matriculated at Worcester Polytech and earned a master’s in planning from the University of Minnesota. 

The change in the composition of the Planning Board occurred after former chair Liz Allison and Barbara Fiacco resigned last week, following Manjikian’s lead leaving the board earlier in the month.

Manjikian fired off a heated letter to Williams accusing Clark of creating a hostile workplace after he accused Allison and Manjikian of abusing their positions in forwarding a public/private plan which included moving the Belmont Public Library to Waverley Square without speaking the Board of Library Trustees.

In an aside, Williams criticized the three former members for leaving their positions without providing notice of their actions.

“As far as I’m concerned, if someone is appointed, not only do they have a personal obligation but they have an obligation to the town to allow a more organized departure,” said Williams. “It’s not fair to the community to do it any other way.” 

Clark told the Selectmen adding Sanderson to the Planning Board’s will allow the body to reach a quorum to vote on issues brought before them, including requests for “special permits” – which includes superseding the town’s zoning bylaws – that requires a “super majority” decision that requires four votes. Clark said his board had four applications waiting to move forward but are at a standstill until Sanderson was appointed. 

This points to the reason why we need to move on this expeditiously,” said Selectman Adam Dash. 

As for filling the remaining two members, Selectmen Chair Jim Williams suggested opening the application process to a new round of resumes for ten days as the current ones on file “are stale.” 

Applicants can send resumes to the Town Administration Office until Nov. 9. The final decision on the two positions – one will be for a single year term and the other three years – will be made at the Selectmen’s Nov. 13 meeting. 

Breaking: Two Planning Board Members, Including Former Chair, Resign

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Photo: (left) Barbara Fiacco; Liz Allison

Former Chair Liz Allison and member Barbara Fiacco suddenly resigned from the Belmont Planning Board since Monday, Oct. 23.

The departure of the pair comes less than a fortnight after associate member Raffi Manjikian angerly resigned on Oct. 13 due to a “hostile work environment” created by newly-elected Chair Charles Clark. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, the board has three members – Clark, Karl Haglund, and newly appointed Stephen Pinkerton – efficiently making it redundant to make decisions as it needs a fourth member. It will be up to the Board of Selectmen to appoint replacements.

Allison, Fiacco, and Clark could not be reached at this time. The article will be updated if they decide to respond. 

Allison and Fiacco’s letters – received on Monday, Oct 23 and Tuesday, Oct. 24 – were brief statements that did not elaborate the reason for their decisions.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with some very fine people and served a fine town,” said Allison.

Fiacco was more specific for her resignation, noting her “current workload and travel schedule. I am unable to dedicate the time necessary to address … challenges [facing the board] effectively this year.”

Allison and former member Manjikian were accused by Clark of abuse of power in September after it was revealed the pair had advocated moving the Belmont Public Library to a public/private Waverley Square development to revitalize the once-vibrant business center. The scheme, dubbed the ‘Big Idea,’ turned controversial when supporters of the library said they were never informed of the project or the move.

In the past month, a group of residents submitted a citizens’ petition to be heard at the Nov. 13 Special Town Meeting to consider changing the Planning Board from an appointed to an elected body.

Professionally, Allison is a noted economist who has served on the town’s Warrant, and Finance committees and Fiacco is a partner at the Boston law firm Foley Hoag. 

Mass AG Reviewing Alleged Open Meeting Violation By Planning Board

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Photo: The web page of the Attorney General’s Open Meeting Law web page.

The Concord Avenue resident who fired a shot across the Planning Board’s bow a month ago concerning possible violations of the state’s Open Meeting Law is now training his aim at the board’s waterline after submitting his complaint to the Commonwealth late last month.

Tim Duncan filed his 40-page accusation with the Office of the Attorney General on Sept. 29 relative to the meetings of “working groups” in connection with the Belmont Day School project which the Planning Board OKd a site and design plan in September.

(A copy of the filing can be obtained through the Belmont Town Clerk’s office, and its new Public Records Request web page.)

“The Attorney General’s office has an enormous amount of experience in dealing with open government and meeting law issues,” Duncan told the Belmontonian last week. “I am confident that they will consider the facts, make a wise decision and determine an appropriate remedy,” said Duncan.

Duncan filed his complaint initially with the Town’s Clerk in August alleging the Board employed small “working groups” to supersede critical discussion on issues including landscaping, parking and a proposed “driveway” that he believed should have been held during the public hearing process. Also, he said there were no minutes to the meetings which is contrary to the public’s “need to know” as part of the Open Meeting Law.

In response to his earlier complaint filed with the Town Clerk’s Office, Belmont Town Counsel George Hall believes the Planning Board was within its legal right to have working groups take up specific technical issues that helped move on the review process. The Planning Board will  briefly discuss the Open Meeting challenge at its Oct. 17 meeting.

For Duncan, who would live across Concord Avenue from the highly controversial “driveway” which will allow a second entry to the school, the board’s systemic violation of the law to ensure transparency in the deliberations on which public policy is based, requires state action.

“I don’t think there is any doubt that the current structure, process, and role of the Planning Board in Belmont is dysfunctional and needs to be changed,” said Duncan.

A week after filing his complaint, a citizens’ petition was submitted by three residents as an article in the Special Town Meeting Warrant which would change the Planning Board from an appointed to an elected body. Campaigners noted alleged violations of the Open Meeting process and abuses by a former board as their reason for the change.

Duncan decided to file his complaint with the Attorney General when it appeared to him that no movement was forthcoming by the town to answer his allegations.

“When I filed the original complaint on Aug. 11, the Attorney General’s office strongly suggested that the town initiate a dialogue with me and others in the community to address the issues that were identified,” said Duncan.

“The town made no effort to contact me, and the Planning Board hired town counsel [George Hall] to respond to the complaint without allowing any public comment or discussion whatsoever. Likewise, I have heard nothing from the town about my more recent filing,” he said.

“My guess is that the town is once again going to waste a significant amount of Belmont residents’ money on legal fees to have town counsel prepare a response, vote on it without public input instead of addressing the problems that need to be addressed,” said Duncan.

Duncan said he did not move recklessly in submitting his allegations to the state.

“Before filing the complaint with the AG’s office, I spent quite a bit of time reviewing dozens of emails and documents I received relative to the Planning Board’s process, discussing the issues with a significant number of people and thinking about the next steps,” he said.

“In addition, as you know, two of the board members themselves have recently spoken out on the working group/open meeting problems and the enormous problems at the Planning Board,” he said, speaking of Charles Clark who Duncan noted in his letter to the AG demanded then Chair Liz Allison to resign due to “improprieties.” Clark was recently elected the new Planning Board chair early in October.

While he is seeking remedies to the violations he contends happened, Duncan does not appear willing to re-hear the five-month-long site and design plan review which would come at considerable cost to the Day School which is currently seeking a building permit with the town’s Office of Community Development. 

“What’s important to me is fixing what is broken so that things are better in the future in Belmont and I think the AG’s office is guided by that motivation as well rather than being punitive,” he said.

 

“Belmont isn’t a small isolated ‘Town of Homes’ anymore. It is part of and tied to the economy of one of the fastest growing urban technology centers in the world,” said Duncan, an attorney who worked in government and currently in financial technology.

“We need a Planning Board and a town government that is up to the task at hand. It is even more concerning that at least two out of three Belmont Selectman will not acknowledge the problems at the Planning Board and that these are symptoms of larger problems with the town,” he said.

 

 

Manjikian Blasts New Planning Board Chair in Resignation Letter: ‘Hostile Work Environment’

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Photo: Planning Board Chair Charles Clark (left) and former member Raffi Manjikian.

In a tempestuous letter sent to the Belmont Board of Selectmen on Friday, Oct. 13, Raffi Manjikian abruptly resigned as an associate member of the Belmont Planning Board, eight days after fellow board member Charles Clark was named the body’s new chair.

Manjikian said he could not support the selection of Clark to lead the board after he treated him and then Planning Board Chair Liz Allison in “a hostile and threatening manner” and “creating a ‘hostile’ work environment” for future Planning Board meetings. 

“I have lost all confidence that I can make any meaningful contribution to our community as your appointee to the Planning Board,” he told the Selectmen.

Clark’s response to Manjikian’s attack was short and concise. 

“I wish him the best,” Clark told the Belmontonian.

Clark was elected chair in a 3-2 vote on Thursday, Oct. 5 with newly-appointed Stephen Pinkerton selected as vice chair.

Manjikian’s resignation came less than three weeks after the Selectmen reappointed him to the board for a term ending in 2019.

The bad blood between Manjikian and Clark goes back to a Sept. 5 Planning Board meeting where Clark accused Manjikian and Allison of an abuse of power in presenting a controversial proposal dubbed the “Big Idea” moving the Belmont Public Library from its current home on Concord Avenue to Waverley Square as part of a public/private revitalization of the business center.

“It’s not a ‘Big Idea.’ It’s a big lie,” Clark said at the Sept. 5 meeting. “I also think as a result [of] the actions that you’ve taken, you should resign as chair of the Planning Board and remove yourself from this process because I think you violated your responsibilities,” Clarks said to Allison. 

“[T]he manner in which Charles Clark, took upon himself to use our public meeting to attack a colleague [Allison]; to air his ill-tempered rant, for the public to watch, was deliberate and calibrated,” said Manjikian.

He noted the Sept. 5 incident was the second – the first at the Beech Street Center in August – “attacking this same colleague in an affect-laden outburst” then quoting Clark as saying “‘… you have not heard the last from me …’ [(W]hile pointing his finger towards [Allison’s] face.[)]

“In a work setting, this behavior would likely result in a terminiation of employment,” Manjikian wrote.

Manjikian is calling on the Selectmen to “take clear decisive action to address this misconduct.” 

“My volunteer service has long been guided by a principle ‘with each other, for each other,'” Manjikian stated. “I fail to see that I can uphold that principle in the face of such disregard for some people with whom you do not agree.”

Citizens’ Petition To Create Elected Planning Board Filed With Town Clerk [VIDEO]

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Photo: The residents behind the citizens’ petition to create an elected board (from left): Anne Mahon, Paul Roberts, and Wayne Mesard. Town Clerk Ellen Cushman is collecting the petitions.

Three residents filed a citizens’ petition with Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman to transform the appointed Planning Board into an elected body on Tuesday morning, Oct. 10. 

Town Meeting Members Paul Roberts (Pct. 8), Anne Mahon (Pct. 4) and Wayne Mesard (Pct. 3) are seeking to have the measure approved as an article by the Special Town Meeting when it meets on Monday, Nov. 13.

“The Planning Board is an incredibly important body of the town of Belmont,” said Roberts, who handed in the petition to Cushman with 162 signatures, much more than the 100 required by the town’s bylaws. 

“It has jurisdiction over the physical shape of our community,” Roberts said about the board which is charged under the town’s bylaws to “protect and preserve the character and the quality of life that defines Belmont.” 

But as it stands today, the appointed board is not accountable to the voters, but only to the selectmen, said Roberts. As an elected body, the petitioners believe the professionalism of the board will increase with a larger pool of interested people who will run. 

Mahon said too many times in the past outstanding candidates were passed over with little explanation. Under an elected form, those seeking a seat at the table will be able to demonstrate their skills and ideas to the town electorate rather than the three selectmen.

“This isn’t an advisory board. This is an administrative board, an operational part of the government,” said Mesard, which Roberts noted is similar to the selectmen, school committee and the library board of trustees. 

The five-member board – which includes an associate member – drafts zoning proposals, studies land-use patterns, reviews traffic concerns and evaluates specific development projects such as the Cushing Village project and recently the Belmont Day School’s classroom/gym development and roadway.

For more than a decade, the Planning Board and its members have come under fire by critics. Complaints of being unfriendly to business surfaced with the Cushing Village site and design review which took 18 months to conclude or in overstepping its jurisdiction with the proposal to move the town’s public library to Waverley Square as part of a redevelopment of the business center without reaching out to the Board of Library Trustees beforehand.

Roberts pointed out that Belmont’s board, whose members are appointed by the Board of Selectmen, is an anomaly when compared to neighboring towns. Communities such as Newton, Weston, Watertown, Lexington, and Winchester are just a few municipalities that elect their planning boards.

The petition will first be certified by the Town Clerk – due to technology issues Cushman was unable to make that call as of 3:45 p.m. Tuesday – before proceeding to the Bylaw Review Committee which reviews proposals for General Bylaw changes to make sure that they do not conflict with existing bylaws.

Selectmen Place Two On Planning Board Seen Supporting Status Quo

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Photo: The Board of Selectmen Monday.

A divided Belmont Board of Selectmen Monday added two members to the Planning Board seen as favorable to the board’s current leadership which was attacked by one selectman for exceeding its authority and fostering a ponderous permitting process. 

“You’ll be sorry,” charged Selectman Adam Dash as the board voted 2-1 to re-appoint sitting member Raffi Manjikian and while selecting Dalton Road’s Stephen Pinkerton to replace Joseph DeStefano on the five-member board at the Selectmen’s meeting held Monday night, Sept. 11.

Dash, who backed Edward “Sandy” Sanderson for the board, said the town had missed the opportunity to change the direction the Planning Board which has come under withering criticism from residents and the elected Board of Library Trustees for advocating in July a proposal to move the Belmont Public Library to Waverley Square as part of a public/private partnership to revitalize the once vibrant business hub.

Pinkerton is one of the leaders of Belmont Citizens for Responsible Zoning which led the successful campaign to restrict the building of oversized single-family dwellings in the Shaw Estate in 2015. 

Sanderson was a city planner for the City of Los Angeles and is currently an urban and transportation planner in the Boston office of a New York-based civil engineering firm.

“If you were posting this job and you got these applications … how do you not hire [Sanderson] for this job when he’s exactly perfectly qualified for this,” said Dash, adding that he would consider placing Pinkerton as an associate member “to get his feet wet” on the board.

Monday’s well-attended meeting, which set aside 15 minutes for several appointments on multiple boards, quickly became a surrogate of the ongoing dispute between the Planning Board and the Library Trustees, whose chair Kathleen Keohane and member Gail Mann attended the meeting. 

Liz Allison, Planning Board chair, was in the audience as was Manjikian with a few supporters backing her. Nearby sat Planning Board member Chuck Clark, who last week sharply denounced both Allison and Manjikian for formulating the proposal to move the library – dubbed the “Big Idea” – without informing the entire board.

Before the vote, Dash spoke at length criticising the Planning Board calling for it to take a new direction which would have begun with Sanderson elected to the board.

“I get a lot of emails from people complaining about roads and sidewalks, parking and all of those emails complaints added up don’t equal the number I get complaining about the Planning Board,” said Dash.

Dash said while keeping an open mind to the proposed library transfer when it was initially presented; Dash said his major concerned was Allison’s unwillingness to cede to overwhelming public sentiment and abandon the scheme. Rather, Dash said he could see the Planning Board presenting the “Big Idea” at a future Town Meeting even if the Library Trustees – who are elected by residents to represent the interests of the library – were opposed to it.

“I get concerned that in the face of the facts … that moving the library to Waverley Square is DOA, there’s a continued push, push, push for that,” he said.

With some major projects coming before the Planning Board shortly – a new High School, revamping general residence zoning and commercial development proposals – Dash said too much emphasis had been placed on projects that are beyond the jurisdiction of the Planning Board.

“It’s taking up a lot of time when there are a lot of things on the plate that gets kicked down the road,” he said.

Overly Bureaucratic 

Also, Dash related that many applicants who have appeared before the Planning Board had expressed their frustration at the deliberative and overly bureaucratic nature of the board’s process. Critics point to the 18 months approval process for the formerly named Cushing Village development and the recent Boston Day School site and design review in which the applicant was required to resubmit documents and undergo delays on seemingly trivial matters.

While he said some of the problems facing applicants arise from the zoning code, Dash said the level of micromanagement from the Planning Board is akin to “death by a thousand cuts.” 

“I feel bad about it because I served with [Planning Board members] and I like them. It’s not a personal thing. Just observing it and the way things are moving forward, [the Planning Board] is not working for the town,” said Dash.

“It just seems to me that it’s not going to change unless we make some changes and this is a place to start,” said Dash.

Asked by Selectmen Chair Jim Williams to speak on both Dash’s comments and who should be  Allison came to the defense of her committee noting that in the past four years all the substantial articles it presented to Town Meeting have been approved. “You can’t pass major bylaw changes … if you are that unpopular.”

The chair also said the issue that has produced “by far” the most correspondence to the Planning Board over the past three months had concerned the Day School proposal, leaving the impression the library is not registering with the greater community.

“Do we get complaints? Yes, because … it is one of the committees where you have to balance the equities,” said Allison. 

Allison told the board she was strongly in favor of reappointing Manjankian who has knowledge of environmental issues and is committed to civil and respectful processes while being able to tell people ‘no’ in respect of things people want to do.”

While not coming out in favor for the second selection, Allison did say Pinkerton had attended many planning board meeting as a zoning campaigner and would be as ready as anyone could be to step onto the board.

Clark reiterated his call for significant changes to the Planning Board. Rather than recall what he said a week earlier, Clark said it was time to “restore confidence in the Planning Board” which required a change in leadership. One avenue towards transforming the group would be not to reappoint Manjikian “because that would change the dynamics on the board and you’d have new leadership elected.”

“There is a lot of work that has to be done by the Planning Board, but we need to get past the problems of being distracted from the important issues,” said Clark, noting that the board has lost six months on moving forward on the future of Waverley Square and South Pleasant Street. 

Selectman Mark Paolillo said he would seek to change the current bylaw to expand the number of board members from five to seven to allow a greater diversity of views

“Every year we have some qualified individuals,” said Paolillo, hoping opening up the board to a higher number of residents will allow for greater diversity of thought.

But as Williams noted, an expanded planning board that would be constituted next year “doesn’t help us now.” 

In the end, Williams and Paolillo selected Manjikian and Pinkerton with the promise to have Sanderson on a short list of candidates to fill the next opening on the board.