The Marion Planning Board on May 4 took the final step to approve the Saltworks Marine project on Wareham Street.
With one abstention, they otherwise voted unanimously to approve a draft of the plan set forth by Engineer Douglas Schneider and Dan Crete of Saltworks.
This brings to a close the public hearing site plan review, which had been continued through several meetings. Discussions with the board began late last year.
Additionally, the board unanimously voted to approve a draft of a special permit request, which was needed due to the size of the buildings exceeding 5,000 square feet. From here, the board will submit the drafts to town counsel for review. Should town counsel find both drafts agreeable, work can begin at the land located at 291 Wareham Street in Marion, also known as Map 11, Lot 79A.
Planning Board Vice Chairman Normal Hills, acting chairman in Stephen Kokkins’ absence, sounded confident in town counsel’s eventual approval.
“I don’t anticipate a problem, (but I don’t know.) I left my Ouija board at home,” Hills said.
Prior to the approval, the floor was opened to questions from the board and the public, of which there were none.
Board member Rico Ferrari raised questions regarding future engineer needs, to which Schneider responded that they would not need assistance from a consulting engineer for the Town.
Additionally, the board voted for a recommendation on the upcoming Annual Town Meeting. The recommendation was regarding the citizen’s petition bylaw “Zoning Limitation on the Size of the Footprint of Commercial and Retail Buildings and Structures,” submitted by former Planning Board member Ted North.
The petition is aimed at discouraging “big box” businesses from setting up shop in Marion. The petition would cap commercial and retail buildings to 10 percent lot coverage and a maximum of 5,000 square feet.
The board voted unanimously to not recommend adoption of the article.
During the January 5 Planning Board meeting, Hills expressed concerns about the petition, saying that the petition was “unclear.”
The fate of the petition will be decided at the May 11 town meeting.
General housekeeping at the meeting included updates on the requests for proposal (RFPs) for engineering services for the Town. Hills said they have four responses so far and that he would allow the board time to look over them.
Other updates were for the Town’s master plan. The two contracts for services from the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District, SRPEDD, received approval at an earlier Planning Board meeting.
The next meeting of the Planning Board is scheduled for May 18 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.
By Andrew Roiter
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