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Board of Appeals Considers West Main St Project

By Kelsey Simonson, Staff Producer
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The Board of Appeals met Wednesday, October 22nd. On the agenda for the night were public hearings for Hopkinton Mews and 85 West Main St. Hopkinton Mews, however, requested a continuance for their project. The Board of Appeals expressed frustration at Hopkinton Mews' repeated continuances. In response, they passed a motion stating that from now until Hopkinton Mews completes their hearings, a representative from the project must be present at every ZBA meeting, whether they are there to request a continuance or hold a hearing. It will no longer be acceptable, ZBA said, for Hopkinton Mews to pass in written requests for continuances prior to the meeting.

Given Hopkinton Mews' continuation request, the Board of Appeals moved to the public hearing of 85 West Main St, currently the Golden Spoon property. Currently, the Golden Spoon is considered a pre-existing non-conforming structure. Planners for the new project noted that the Golden Spoon is quite an old property, and over the years development has encroached on the property, leaving little buffer left between the property and the road. There are insufficient buffers between the property and the road, there is no stormwater management, and no internal parking lot landscaping. The concern going forward is for when Hopkinton Mews comes in; traffic management to the development if the Golden Spoon stays is concerning. A Starbucks, a bank, and a retail building are proposed for the area instead. The planners said that although the new proposed development is still not compliant to all zoning rules, it is more compliant than the existing structure.

Ken Weismantel of the Planning Board was present at the meeting. He reiterated the concerns for traffic at the Lumber St and West Main St intersection. He said that if the plans for traffic that Hopkinton Mews proposes go through, there is not enough room for traffic to cleanly pass through this intersection. If the Golden Spoon stays and an additional lane of traffic is not constructed to alleviate traffic, the traffic grade at that intersection would fall from a B to a D grade. Weismantel said that before this project, everyone thought that they'd "just have to live with" the traffic grade decrease. Weismantel sees the new development at 85 West St as a possible aid to help the new traffic.

Although there were many residents at the meeting, there were no objections or opinions voiced by the townspeople when the opportunity was presented. After the lack of opposition from the audience, the ZBA voted to continue hearings on this proposed development project; this project will continue hearings on November 19th.

The next Board of Appeals meeting is scheduled for November 5th at 7:00 p.m.