beagenda

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MINUTES<= o:p>

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WATERTOWN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

PUBLIC H= EARING

WEDNESDA= Y, MAY 5, 2005 - 7:30 P.M.

JOHN TRUMBULL PRIMARY SCHOOL MEDIA CENTER

APPLICAT= ION #803 – GRIFFIN SCHOOL, LLC

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PRESENT: = &nb= sp; = Mary Bisson, Acting Chairman & Secretary

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; Roger Mitchell

= ; &n= bsp; = ; &n= bsp; = ; Enrico Sarandrea, Chai= rman

ABSENT: &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = John Griffith

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; Phil Roger, Vice Chairman

ALTERNATES PRESENT: Chris Lafferty

= ; &n= bsp; Scott Stewart

ALTERNATES ABSENT: &= nbsp; None

OTHERS PRESENT: &n= bsp; = ; Mary Barton, Zoning Enforcement Officer

= ; &n= bsp; = ; &n= bsp; = ; Moosa Rafey, Assistant Zoning Enforcement Officer

MR. SARANDREA RECUSED HIMSELF FROM THIS APPLICATION<= /p>

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1. = Call Meeting To Order

Mr. Sarandrea, Chairman, Called the Public Hearing to Order at 7:44 p.m.

2. &nb= sp; Roll Call

Ms. Bisson, Secretary, executed the Roll Call.

Mr. Sarandrea, Chairma= n, asked Mr. Lafferty to sit in for Mr. Sarandrea, who is recusing himself.

Mr. Sarandrea, Chairma= n, asked Mr. Stewart to sit in for Mr. Roger, in his absence.

Mr. Sarandrea, Chairma= n, asked Ms. Bisson to act as Chairman, due to his recusing himself.

WATERTOWN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

PUBLIC H= EARING

APPLICAT= ION #803 – GRIFFIN SCHOOL, LLC

MAY 5, 2= 005

Page 2

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Ms. Bisson, Secretary,= read aloud the Legal Notice for the Record:

“Legal Notice

The Zoning Board of Ap= peals of the Town of Watertown will hold a Public Hearing at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 5, 2005 at the Jo= hn Trumbull Primary School Media Center, 770 Buckingham Street, Oakville= , CT to hear and act upon the following applications:

Application #803 of Gr= iffin School LLC c/o Attorney Joseph Yamin, 12 Grand Street, Suite 417, Waterbury= , CT on a request for the following variances from the Zoning Regulations of the Town of Watertown:

1. = A variance of 14 feet to construct parking spaces within 25 feet of= a front yard property line setback aka street line (Davis Street); Section 63= .9.3 of the Zoning Regulations states “No parking area or portion thereof, including parking spaces, driveways, and access aisles shall be located wit= hin the required front yard, except for driveways directly from the street or driveways which serve as parking areas for single family dwellings.”<= o:p>

All requested variance= s are located at 26 Davis Street, Oakville, CT the former Griffin Elementary School, = in an R-G General Residential Zoning District.

At this Hearing intere= sted persons and written communications will be heard. A copy of the application is on fi= le in the Planning and Zoning Office, 51 Depot Street, Suite 502, Watertown, Connecticut for public re= view Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 1:00 p.m. to 5:= 00 p.m. or by appointment.

Dated at Watertown, Connecticut, this 23rd and 28^th day of April, 2005.

Mary Bisson, Secretary=

Zoning Board of Appeals”

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3. Hearing of Cases=

&= nbsp; A. Application #803 of Griffin School, LLC request for a variance from the Zoning Regulations of the Town of Watertown to permit the construction of 9 parking sp= aces within 25 feet of a front yard property line setback on former Griffin School property located at 26 Davis Street, Oakville, CT.

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&= nbsp; Recess or Adjourn, the Public Hearing must be Closed by June 9, 2005 unless applic= ant grants a time extension.

WATERTOWN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

PUBLIC H= EARING

APPLICAT= ION #803 – GRIFFIN SCHOOL, LLC

MAY 5, 2= 005

Page 3

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&= nbsp; Joseph Yamin, Attorney Representing Griffin School, LLC

= ; Atty. Yamin: I’m here represe= nting Griffin School, LLC. The variance tonight is similar to= the variances that were sought at the last meeting. What this involves is, the front p= art of Griffin <= st1:PlaceType w:st=3D"on">School is adjacent to Davis Street. Under the Zoning Regulations you w= ould require 25 feet off the street before you could put parking spaces. We’re seeking a variance of = 14 feet to allow for 9 parking spaces on the site. The Zoning Regulation for an age restricted housing complex in an RG Zone requires 1.1 parking spaces per un= it which requires, I think, approximately 42 parking spaces on site. And that’s what we’ll = be allowed. All the parking requ= ired under the Regulations would exist now on site, there would be no need for o= ff site parking.

&= nbsp; As you know the variances, as we’ve discussed in the past, the peculiari= ty of this particular site is that in an effort to reuse existing public build= ings and not alter the façade or the construction of that building, you w= ould need the variance to get the parking spaces on the site and to allow for emergency vehicles. It’s consistent with the Regulation in that this type of housing is the housing = that the Town of Watertown has decided is appropriate to reuse on certain buildings including public buildings that are no longer used for their original purpose. This does not create an economical= or financial hardship, but rather the layout of the building in relation to the site, the parking lot, so as I believe everyone except Commissioner Stewart when we did the site tour, the paving is essentially all the way up Davis Street except for a retaining wall, so actually in the end we’ll have more green space on this site. If you look there is a landscape plan that kind of shows you and that would be= on Page, the third to the last page I believe, there’s a land (inaudible) sheet (inaudible). That shows you a general landscape plan that’s going to exist which is creating more green, more plantings than presently exists on the site now. Presently the entire site is essen= tially all asphalt, and (inaudible).

= ; Mr. Stewart: On this plan you show parking spaces in the parking lot across the street. You’re saying with this vari= ance those are eliminated?

= ; Atty. Yamin: Well what you’re seeing is just kind of the parking across the street had been played out, i= t’s not part of this application, so we won’t need the parking across the street.

= ; Mr. Stewart: So the potential grant= ing of this variance basically you won’t need that area in Mosgrove Field anymore?

WATERTOWN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

PUBLIC H= EARING

APPLICAT= ION #803 – GRIFFIN SCHOOL, LLC

MAY 5, 2= 005

Page 4

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= ; Atty. Yamin: That’s right, with the cavea= t that I’m going back to Planning and Zoning and saying we have the space on site now, 1.1, and we’d like to eliminate any need to put spaces ther= e. With the variance I’m in conformance with the 1.1 per unit, and that’s 9 spaces. At the last meeting we had (inaudi= ble) variances required for the one waste and the new parking in the back.<= /o:p>

= ; Ms. Barton: The one comment that d= id come up was about the tree, if there was another tree on site that had spec= ial meaning. I spoke with numerous people at the Board of Ed and Mary McKee, which I guess was a teacher at Griffin at the time when it was still a school, and she couldn’t reme= mber any other trees. I spoke with= the custodians and no one had any knowledge of any other tree that was brought = up by Councilman Rinaldi, about another tree.= All I can tell you is the Centennial Tree was the only one that was preserved.

= ; Mr. Stewart: I’m sure (inaudi= ble).

= ; Atty. Yamin: We haven’t done = any work at the site. There’= ;s only one tree, the Centennial, that’s the only one that exists, we haven’t cut any. And we= made provisions, Chuck Berger had required provisions in our construction details as to the manner in which that tree will be protected.

= ; Ms. Barton: There’s a tree w= ell around it, there’s protection around the drip zone of the tree so it doesn’t die when they do the paving, so it will be protected during construction.

= ; Atty. Yamin: So I just don’t = really have any knowledge of that.

= ; Mr. Mitchell: I may be mistaken but = a tree at Polk <= st1:PlaceType w:st=3D"on">School I think they took a couple = down that (inaudible) when they did their expansion down there.

= ; Ms. Barton: I don’t know, bu= t I did try and follow up with everyone; the last principal wasn’t around= , so when I called the Board of Ed, Mr. Beliveau who is the Assistant Director of Operations, didn’t know anything, I spoke to people who had been there for awhile, then they gave me a couple of names of teachers who are at Polk= right now, Mary McKee was the one I talked to, I guess she was a long time teache= r at Griffin, she had no knowledge of any tree.= I spoke to Mr. Lamphier, who was the last custodian of the school, I figured if anyone would know about the tree it would probably be the custod= ian, but he had no knowledge of any tree except that Centennial Tree, so I’= ;ve done my due diligence. I can’t find anybody else.

WATERTOWN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

PUBLIC H= EARING

APPLICAT= ION #803 – GRIFFIN SCHOOL, LLC

MAY 5, 2= 005

Page 5

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= ; Ms. Bisson: With the parking all on site, this certainly will make this project for you and the Town a much saf= er thing so people won’t have to be crossing Davis Street with no traffic light.=

= ; Atty. Yamin: That was a concern. And by putting 42 spaces on the si= te, again we’re within the 1.1 and I don’t think, obviously (inaudi= ble) for Planning and Zoning let’s say we don’t believe there’s any need for parking across the street any longer.

= ; Ms. Bisson: I mean if people park = over there and walk cross that street that’s their own problem, but you’re not going to have any designated ones over there for people who are visiting (inaudible).

= ; Atty. Yamin: And I think the flip s= ide is going to be true because whenever I’m over there, people park, you kn= ow the parents and whoever park on Griffin School and are cros= sing the street with their kids to play on the field, so I think now it will be = two separate locales, two separate activities.= One is going to be residential parking for people at Griffin School, Mosgrove should be solely for the ball field.

= ; Ms. Bisson: Anybody on the Board h= ave any questions? Is there anyon= e from the Public who would like to speak For or Against this Application?

= ; MOTION: (Mr. Stewart, sec. Mr. Mitchell) to Close the Public Hearing for Application #80= 3 of Griffin School, LLC request for a variance from the Zoning Regulations of t= he Town of Watertown to permit the construction of 9 parking spaces within 25 = feet of a front yard property line setback on former Griffin School property loc= ated at 26 Davis Street, Oakville, CT.

&= nbsp; Discussion: None<= o:p>

&= nbsp; MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY

Public Hearing Closed at 7:54 p.m.

Respect= fully submitted,

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Mary Bi= sson, Acting Chairman

Zoning = Board of Appeals

&nbs= p; _________________= _________________

&nbs= p; Lynn M. LaForme, Minutes Secretary