Walpole Zoning Board of Adjustments

Minutes: April 15, 2015

Present: Board members: Chair Myra Mansouri, Jan Galloway Le Clerc Vice-Chair, Ernie Vose, Clerk, Bob Anderson, Mary Therese Lester. Absent: Judy Trow and Stephanie Stoughton.

Recording: Marilou Blaine Recording Secretary.  These minutes are unapproved and will be reviewed at the May 20, 2015, meeting for corrections, additions and/or omissions.

Call to Order: Chairman Myra Mansouri opened the meeting at 7:28 pm. Since there was a full board, no one was needed to fill in.

Minutes: Mr. Vose moved to accept the minutes of the March 2015 meeting as presented.  Ms. Lester  seconded the motion and the board voted in the affirmative.

New Business:

Signage for the Burdick’s building on Main Street.

Ms. Kathy Watson represented Burdick’s. She brought photos of the signs that were currently on the building including the Post Office, Burdick’s Restaurant, the Chocolate Shop and Tea Room, Galloway Real Estate and Walpole Grocery. All those signs will remain the same size, but will now all be in the same matching font and style.

Two new smaller signs pointing out the entrances to the restaurant and chocolate shop are new.  Since they are within 100 feet of other signs, Ms. Watson was told she would need a special exception.

The sign ordinance, Article 4 No. 9 says signs of six (6) square feet may be placed between twenty (20) and one-hundred feet (100) of another sign by Special Exception from the Board of Adjustment. The two signs will be about 30 to 40 feet apart.

Mr. Anderson said the board can allow a special exception if these signs are within six square feet. Ms. Watson said they are less than six square feet and drop down from the ceiling of the portico.

A Public Hearing is scheduled for next month.

Signage for a new cafe in the Pellegrino building. Mr. Jesse Carr had drawings of a sign that would be a free-standing sign on two eight-foot posts perpendicular to the street and one sign on the building.

Mr. Carr asked about a sign inside the building. Mr. Vose said the Zoning Board was only concerned with signs outside the building.

Carr said he and his business partner Kathy Mazziott were going to focus on pastries but they found out that week that Tom Murray of the former Murray’s restaurant is going to allow his former cook to open up a place and it is going to feature pastries. So this may mean that the cafe in the Pellegrino building may have to focus on savory breakfasts.

But Mr. Carr brought in a drawing of a possible sign, a cupcake, hand-painted on both sides of a plywood base, saying MAZZIOTT’S. With the shape of this, we will have a hard time figuring out exactly the square footage, Mr. Anderson said. But it is larger than the regulations. And it is too large because you have other signs within 100 feet.

Mr. Carr pointed out that many signs in the commercial district in the Village are  well over the six square foot limit. “Why can’t my sign be just as big?” he asked.

Because those are the regulations, Chair Mansouri said.

He asked if he got the approval of the abutters to have a larger sign, could he do it then. Ms. Mansouri said no, the approval has to come from the Zoning Board.

It’s in the commercial district so you can have a sign 32 square feet, Vice-Chair Le Clerc said. But still, signs must not be not less than 100 feet from other signs, she continued. Because this is a building with multiple uses, the free-standing sign cannot be more than 32 square feet.

Mr. Carr said, “I was under the impression that you could get a waiver.”

The only thing  that can apply is a special exception but the special exception when applied is still six square feet.

However, Ms. Le Clerc, said you could apply for a variance, which is relief from the zoning regulation. However, one of the criteria is that you have to show hardship. Then you can have as large you want .

Mr. Carr said if you look around at the signs next door and around the commercial district, the signs are larger than six square feet. Ms. Mansouri said it is probably that many were there prior to the zoning regulations for signs.

Carr was advised to look over the criteria for a variance and if he could convince the board that there was hardship, and abutters didn’t object, the board could vote in his favor.

If you can show that you can’t promote your business and that the size of the sign is a hardship, then the board would need to consider it, Ms. Lester said. 

Wellhead Protection Plan Overlay District – Where should the new regulations go in the Zoning Ordinance Booklet? The board decided to:

Add Amended March 2015 to the title page of the Zoning Ordinances.

Keep the same font that the Zoning Ordinances are in now.

Make the new Wellhead Protection Plan Overlay District a new Article XVIIII.

Parts A and B will now be the Preamble:

Paragraph C will be eliminated.

Changes to the By-laws:

The board voted to make some simple changes to the by-laws. Most of the change were typos or misspellings. The exception was under Article Vii Fees, which eliminated the last phrase in the paragraph.

Other business: Mr. Anderson said that someone had asked about what can be done with the house that was almost totally burned a couple of years ago. Ms. Mansouri said that the person should write a letter to the Selectboard.

Respectfully submitted,

Marilou Blaine, Recording Secretary