The Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals on September 11 granted a Special Permit for a personal fitness training business at 12 Mayflower Lane with conditions directly related to board members’ and abutters’ concerns about the nuisance and traffic the operation might bring to the neighborhood.
Applicant and homeowner Jorge Rodriguez began the public hearing by noting he had written answers to the concerns his neighbors had expressed when the hearing began on August 28. He will keep his fitness classes in his small garage, and all parking will be off the street, on his driveway or behind his home only if there is a need. Noise will be kept down. Class sizes won’t necessarily be as many as 10, his original ask for his permit.
Board member Richard Cutler expressed the first concern, that rear parking could trigger the need for a Planning Board site-plan review. Rodriguez quickly agreed there would be no customer parking in back.
Comments from both opponents and supporters of Rodriguez’s business plan then followed. Neighbor Doug Sims, who had just been appointed as a ZBA associate member but recused himself from his role as a board member to speak as a resident, expressed the strongest objections. While he acknowledged that Rodriguez was a good neighbor, Sims noted this business is a big imposition on the neighborhood. He is still concerned about the increase in traffic and the fact this operation violates terms of the development’s covenant of regulations to which all residents agreed. That covenant excludes businesses. “This is not what we signed up for,” Sims said. ZBA Chair Donald Spirlet noted the panel does not deal with covenants. They are beyond its jurisdiction, he said.
Another neighbor said he had no problem with the business plan because it would be hard for more than five students at a time to fit into the garage there.
Ultimately, the Zoning Board approved Rodriguez’s permit with multiple conditions. Customers shall park only along his driveway on existing pavement and not behind the home. Hours of operation will be Monday-Saturday from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm, no Sundays. There will be a five-customer limit per class. The permit will be reviewed in nine months.
In other action, the board opened a public hearing on variances requested for a plan to build a three-car garage in excess of the permitted 1,000 square feet in the front yard of 447 Neck Road. The hearing, which seeks two variances, was quickly continued to the board’s next meeting because the petitioner’s engineer had not submitted certified plans.
The next meeting of the Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals will be held on Thursday, September 25 at 7:15 pm at 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals
By Michael J. DeCicco