The backside abutters living on Olde Sheepfield Road came out to Monday night’s Marion Planning Board meeting to weigh in on Arnie Johnson’s expansion proposal for Fieldstone Market on Route 6.
Given the floor during the public hearing, some abutters rejected elements of the expansion plan itself, but more abutters seemed to be primarily concerned about what would happen should Johnson someday sell his store. One abutter wondered aloud what would stop 7-Eleven from someday buying Fieldstone.
(Johnson told the meeting his son is going to graduate this spring from Bentley University and plans to commit to the family business.)
“Really our concern is process. People make mistakes, and I think this really needs to be looked at,” said Marion resident Jim Albani, 36 Olde Sheepfield Road. “Look, we don’t want to stop this … we just want to make sure the process is done legally and to the fullest extent of the law. We just want to make sure the next guy who’s not an Arnie Johnson … let’s make sure we’re doing this right.”
Hinting at his role as chairman of the Rochester Planning Board, Johnson insisted he is committed to the public-vetting process but also cautioned Marion residents suggesting he apply for a variance with the Zoning Board of Appeals.
“ZBA’s set precedent, planning boards don’t. They judge on what’s in front of them,” said Johnson. “If I have to go to the ZBA, I will, but the ZBA sets precedent, and that may make it difficult for the town (to limit a future expansion proposal).”
The Marion Planning Board had much to digest before voting to continue the case to its March 18 meeting (7:10 pm), at which time Johnson will receive his final answer regarding Town Counsel’s advice on the single zoning issue that would allow him time to apply to the ZBA. The project at large will presumably need multiple sessions of vetting in the continued public hearing.
The application filed by Johnson Family Investments includes major site-plan review for expansion at Fieldstone Farms, 806 Mill Street (Route 6), Map 17 Lots 12 and 15A (zoned Residence C).
Presenting on Johnson’s behalf was Bill Madden of G.A.F. Engineering, who summarized the plan for a 2,044 square-foot building expansion, the absorption of a neighboring lot that his attorney Doug Troyer of Pierce Atwood LLP explained would dissolve that 812 Mill Street, a residence, into 806 and automatically rezone the land so that it could play a role in the expansion of the 41,000 square-foot site.
The building expansion will include 1,500 square feet of additional retail floor space and 500 square feet of additional storage.
Conditions of major site-plan review as decided by the board in November 2023 granted waivers on an environmental assessment and a traffic study. Madden said he has not issued revisions to the plans submitted on February 7, preferring to get the Planning Boards to minimize the number of revisions.
“We understand there have been a few comments raised by a few neighborhood groups,” he said, noting the acquisition of 812 Mill Street, adjacent property formerly owned by Carl and Karen Correia.
The plan is to submit an Approval Not Required application to combine the two lots but not until “we have some certainty that the project is going to meet with Planning Board approval as we think it should and will,” said Madden.
Madden said original plans to seek a variance from the ZBA to exceed the allowable amount of parking spaces have been changed. “Our feeling was we’re going to have a tough time with that variance so we’re looking at alternatives.”
As a result, the new parking lot would consist in part of a porous, recycled asphalt product (RAP), providing just under the 40% threshold triggering the need for a variance. This will also alter how drainage from the site is accomplished.
Madden said a large portion of stormwater will be under that parking lot and that the erosion control barrier will allow no sediment to be washed off the parking lot and into the system.
Alterations to the original concept, Madden said, has cut down tree-clearing. “We feel that the tree line is substantial and not in need of supplemental plantings,” he said.
The existing transformer and electrical on the site will be upgraded.
Planning Board Chairman Tucker Burr struggled with the “merger doctrine” and the ANR scenario and its zoning implications as outlined by Troyer. Calling the nonconformities a “giant elephant in the room,” Burr saw a nonconforming use spreading and asked, “what’s stopping this from every single lot …?”
Troyer argued that Johnson’s plan will, in the end, be less nonconforming. Alluding to the former restaurant at the Fieldstone site, Troyer described the permit to continue a preexisting legal use.
“It’s our opinion that the site is operated as a market. They’re not changing that use, they’re not expanding that use,” he said, arguing that the plan actually mitigates the existing nonconformities because the absorption of 812 Mill Street by 806 (Fieldstone) will make the activity more conforming to the space provided.
“They’re not increasing any nonconformities at all. They’re actually making the nonconformity better,” he said. “It’s basically … legal retail use … not increasing the quality, character or degree. And there’s no adverse effect on the neighborhood.”
Along with some of the neighbors themselves, board members needed more convincing.
“Their concern remains, what’s going to stop Mr. Johnson from attaching another lot and turning this Residence C area into commercial property?” asked board member Eileen Marum. “The residents need a reassurance that they’re not going to be living in a commercial area.”
Acknowledging “two very well-written letters” that Marum had referenced, Troyer asserted that no zoning change is needed to execute the plan as proposed.
Resident Dina Nichols, while praising Johnson for his store and commitment to the community, told of her consultation with an attorney that she said had served as town counsel in multiple Massachusetts municipalities and gave her a very different interpretation of the law where it concerns the ANR plan and its implication on zoning.
Member Andrew Daniel asked if Town Counsel had advised the board on the zoning issue. Town Planner Doug Guey-Lee said the board solicited an opinion from Town Counsel.
Johnson would later speak and inform anyone who hadn’t known that he in fact sought these opinions himself through the town’s Building Department in order to most efficiently set his application in motion.
Drawing again on his experience serving on the Rochester Planning Board, Johnson added that the Marion Planning Board can condition an approval against further expansion.
Madden added that Johnson has funded a 53G account for site-plan review.
The public hearing was continued to March 18 at 7:10 pm.
After hearing from Representative Jennifer Jones during a public hearing, the board voted to send FSJ Holdings LLC’s application for a zoning change from General Business District to Residence E at 207-215 Wareham Road (Route 6) to the warrant for the May13 Annual Town Meeting.
Citing the last Open Space Plan sustainability and coastal resiliency, Open Space Acquisition Commission Chairman John Rockwell was critical of the plan.
“I don’t see how that helps to rezone land in the coastal flood plain for high-density housing. It would be better to find spots for high-density housing where there is not flooding now or likely later,” said Rockwell. “You want to create a situation where to manage … that’s not done by increasing the density in these areas.”
Rockwell’s comments apparently had more influence on the board’s disposition toward the town’s proposed Zoning Bylaw Amendment to add Article XX (Chapter 230-20, Stormwater Management) necessary to ensure compliance with the national discharge system. Approval would put the proposal on the warrant for the Annual Town Meeting on May 13.
Rockwell said that while EPA requires towns to have a MS4 plan, including a stormwater bylaw, “it doesn’t have to be this stormwater bylaw,” he said, advising against imposing the bylaw as proposed “on everyone in town.” Rockwell said the bylaw does not address bacteria or control nitrogen. “You have to look at the problems in Marion and craft a bylaw” that addresses those problems.
The board closed the public hearing and voted to make no recommendation but will put the subject on its next agenda as a discussion item.
A continued public hearing for the 48-unit, market-rate, housing project proposed at 78 Wareham Road was not attended by developer Matt Zuker.
“Continuation is probably moot at this point,” said Guey-Lee, indicating he would reach out and referencing “some outstanding issues” and the possibility that Zuker may need to readvertise. At Guey-Lee’s recommendation, the board continued the public hearing beyond Town Meeting, settling on June 3 at 7:05 pm.
Further discussion on the proposed Short-Term Rental Bylaw being tweaked by the board pushed the meeting to nearly three hours before it was adjourned.
The next meeting of the Marion Planning Board is scheduled for Monday, March 18, at 7:00 pm at the Police Station on Route 6.
Marion Planning Board
By Mick Colageo