Thursday, August 2, 2007
The Framingham Planning Board voted tonight to approve a temporary occupancy permit for SMOC at 517 Winter Street. This was a complete formality, but means the process is advancing.
The meeting opened with a brief discussion of the condition of the property, and the Board was satisfied with the work that has been done, with a few exceptions, most notably the fencing. The fence around the children's playground is not complete, and the fence around the dumpster has not begun. SMOC attorney James Hanrahan stated that the dumpster would not be installed until the enclosing fence was in place, which he thought would be Monday.
The Board then took Hanrahan and SMOC to task for generating neighbor complaints, especially for working on Sundays. Hanrahan blamed miscommunication between the contractor and the subcontractor, and said when he found out about the work, he wrote Monday morning to the town to apologize. (He most likely heard about it because I complained to the subcontractor, who asked the contractor, who asked SMOC, who asked Hanrahan, who said "Oh, no!") Unfortunately, there appears to be no one in the town with the authority to enforce a provision against working on Sunday, and nothing came of the issue.
Six other minor issues need to be resolved, including the placement of the "Left Turn Only" sign on the wrong side of the driveway, and while none of them overly concerned the Board, they were enough to prevent them from signing off on the project completely. There was a choice between voting to approve a temporary permit or waiting till work was complete and meeting again. Sue Bernstein asked Hanrahan which he preferred, at one point asking him if it would be a hardship to wait a week. Hanrahan replied that after waiting two years (thanks to STEPPS!), any delay was a hardship. (You could almost feel sorry for the poor $50 million weakling being pushed around by the 97 lb. bully.)
Carol Spack pointed out to Hanrahan the the town is very strict with all applicants over issues such as this and is treating them no differently. Chair Ann Welles then gave SMOC the choice of a temporary permit or waiting to come back for a permanent one. After some discussion, all agreed on a temporary permit which can become permanent once all items are addressed by SMOC. The temporary permit lasts for 90 days. Tom Mahoney moved, Andrea Carr-Evans seconded, and the motion passed 4-0-1, with Carol Spack abstaining.
We have been pressuring the town to deny the permit, but it now appears the building commissioner and town counsel have decided to approve, which means we will be appealing to the Zoning Board of Appeals. We would like to be represented by an attorney at these meetings, but that will depend on our fundraising efforts. If you can contribute, please do as soon as possible.
See our May newsletter for more information.
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