~July 14, 2022 - ZBA Meeting

The proposed Keene's Mill Village development was on the agenda for Duxbury ZBA on July 14th. The topic of discussion was traffic. Rob Nagi, VHB, presented his review of the traffic study (found HERE on Duxbury Town website.)

In addition to discussion about traffic, the meeting revealed that the proposal submitted to the town was still missing important details. The PACTV video from July 14, 2022 provided the following comments.

ZBA Board Member Freeman Boynton asked "At what point do the counts become more hazardous to the neighborhood?" Rob Nagi, Traffic Engineer with VHB answered "The relative impact of a project like this on that quiet street is magnified. A roadway like North Street carries probably only at most 30 cars an hour during the various times of the day, they're going to see another 30 cars added to that. Perception wise that 100% increase of what's out there today." "It will be viewed as a significant impact." In addition, Rob Nagi added that he lives on a quiet street and a development like this went on his street. He said he saw a significant impact but that "he got used to it".

52:59 Amy Kwesell, Town Council, asked what the "amenities" and communal space were referring to in the project narrative. Board Members tried to find the green space or "amenities" on the plans but it's still not clear what that is referring to. ZBA Vice Chairman Judy Barrett added "I think there's a generally disconnect between what's in the narrative and what's shown on the plans."

1:04 Amy Kwesell, Town Council, "I have the preliminary site and architectural package. I have the application which is quite dense. I see no plans with septic systems on them and I see no plans with snow storage. Nothing. Did they actually submit plans that don't show the septic systems? Is that a possibility? Or am I missing plans? I mean how can they submit plans of the project claiming that there's going to be 28 units septic systems but they're not showing us where the septic systems are and they're asking for waivers from Board of Health regulations but we don't even have the location of the septic systems in front of us. I'm confused."

1:05 Rick Grade, Grady Consulting. "Yes, we submitted with preliminary plans. And we will be submitting shortly with much more detail on drainage, septic, as well as the comments we are collecting here this evening."

Amy Kwesell, Town Council "So how is our peer reviewer going to review plans that are incomplete?"

Judy Barrett, Board Member "We're not. That's why Pat Brennan's not here tonight."

Amy Kwesell, Town Council "I would suggest that we not even engage, we don't have Pat look at anything until we have a full set, a complete set of plans because if not it's going to be piecemeal and it's not going to be helpful for either side." "I understand with the whole 40B regulations, they are only required to submit preliminary plans but I can tell you on all of the 40Bs that I have sat on in the past say 5 years, I've never had anyone submit anything without septic system locations or sewer hookup locations. I mean that is most definitely part of a preliminary plan. And therefore, since March 22, these were filed on March 22. It is now July 14th. We still don't have plans that show a septic system. We still don't have our peer reviewer... he's ready to go.. but we don't have a package to send to him and say Pat go and tell us where the snow storage is, is it adequate, tell us will these septic systems work, are they going to be too close to each other. How are we supposed to analyze the waivers they're requesting from Board of Health regulations if we don't have any of this in front of us? I'm actually flabbergasted."

Emmett Sheehan, Board Member to Rick Grady "When do you think we'll see all that?"

Rick Grady "We've had a few more things come up tonight so I'd say roughly two more weeks."

1:08 John Baldwin, Applicant "We actually DO have a plan with septics on there. I mean we know what's going on over there."

Judy Barrett, Board Member "If you have it and we don't, there's a problem."

John Baldwin "But we will. We have till September. We know you're not taking a meeting in August."

Freeman Boynton "So you're willing to waive the 180 days". John Baldwin "No, I didn't say that." Discussion about waiving the first 30 days to open the public hearings. John Baldwin stated "Well, it doesn't really matter." Emmett Sheehan, Board Member "Well, it does if we run out of time."

Judy Barrett, Vice Chairperson "It does matter. It's insulting to the Board for someone to file an application, to be asked about missing components at the first meeting and get an answer like ~Well we filed what we had to file under the state regulations.~ And by the way you actually did not do. What you filed is what the subsidizing agency requires for project eligibility. The state regulations that guide the ZBA in what we can require for submission is incomplete. So don't come into this meeting tonight and act like somehow you're good people who gave us an extension which I'm not even sure we needed. And we find ourselves, now we still can't get our peer review consultant to review a set of plans because we don't have it. What we have is a drawing on a piece of paper. It's outrageous."

With the current timeline, Pat Brennan could get a complete set of plans to review in August and bring back comments in September for changes to be made. Comments to the plans would need to be presented at a public meeting.

Amy Kwesell "This Board has been through 40Bs .. quite a few lately.. and I think it's extremely questionable whether that can be done in two months." ... "The applicant can continue the 180 days but they don't have to."

Judy Barrett, Vice Chairperson, "The Applicant can compensate for a sloppy submission. They could do that. By giving us an extension to the 180 days now."

Carole Smith, Neighbor - If VHB recommends at least 100 feet for the driveway from the intersection for unit #1, then 1, 2, 4 and shared driveway between units 3/5 are all within 100 feet of the intersection of North/Keene Street. Per the recommendations of VHB, they need to move all those driveways or remove those houses.

Deborah Frangesh - Addressed the issues of safety and asked what the plans are for the overflow parking of 28 units. There's no room in the development for additional parking or delivery trucks. Where will guests park? Will overflow parking be on North Street? Will there be No Parking signs on North Street? How will that be enforced? North Street is not wide enough for on street parking. The proposed development is a dense and an unlivable situation.

Amy Kwesell, Town Council - "The driveways are already going to be widened, correct? And then if we're talking about additional parking, perhaps that should all be done before the drainage calcs are done?

The next meeting is scheduled for September 8th.

Judy Barrett, Vice Chairman - "I'd like to know what we are going to get from the applicant ahead of that meeting and when we are getting it?"

Rick Grady - "Drainage calculations and the full site plan in two weeks."

As of today, the documents posted on the ZBA website for Public Hearing Documents include Complete Application, Architectural Plans, Traffic Impact Assessment and Traffic Peer Review by VHB.