After hearing the details of homeowner Jorge Rodriguez’s plan and neighbors’ concerns, Rochester’s Zoning Board of Appeals on August 28 continued a Special Permit Request to allow a personal fitness gym at 12 Mayflower Lane to its next meeting to give Rodriguez time to rethink his proposal.
Rodriguez explained he is looking to teach small classes in what he called Functional Fitness four days a week at his home on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, lasting no more than one hour each time. There would be one class in the morning and one in the afternoon, serving around five and a maximum of 10 students each time. His goal, he noted, is to try out the possibility of expanding these classes into a larger business at a separate location, “… to test the waters to see how it goes,” he said.
Board Chair Donald Spirlet raised the first concern. Ten participants would require parking for 10, he said. Will there be enough off-street parking available? Rodriguez answered he has a long driveway and space for parking behind his home and that 10 participants would be the limit that would make him expand elsewhere.
Rodriguez’s neighbors said they were concerned about the noise and traffic this business would bring to their neighborhood. Steve Bobrowicki, who lives across the street, complained about what Rodriguez has already been doing out of his home. Workouts sometimes happen in the street, he said. Plus, Rodriguez’s workout music is so loud it projects right into Bobrowicki’s yard. “My kids are (Rochester Memorial School) students,” Bobrowicki said. “Eight o’clock they’re in bed, and the music’s still too loud.”
Neighbor Doug Sims, who had just been appointed as a Zoning Board associate member but had to recuse himself from the hearing to speak, said he too objects to Rodriguez’s loud workout music and workouts in the street. He noted Mayflower Lane is shaped in an S-curve and has been the site of two motor-vehicle accidents in the nine years that he’s lived there.
Rodriguez’s business would only add to the traffic flow, he said. Neighbor Preston Faulkner said there is a garage on a new foundation there that is open and exposes his exercise equipment. “I hear the noise, too,” he said. “I echo the concern.”
Rodriguez said he and his two partners are willing to do what it would take to keep peace with the neighborhood. His partner Ken Pearlman said they will not do any programming in the street. “That’s an easy accommodation,” he said.
The Zoning Board concluded the proposal was not as simple as it seemed on paper. Member Richard Cutler said Rodriguez’s plan goes against the town bylaws allowing home businesses, wherein the intent is that they blend with the neighborhood and be conducted solely by the homeowner. But Rodriguez has two business partners.
Jeffrey Costa said Rodriguez had three options. He could risk a “no” vote from the four members in attendance that night (all four would have to vote in the affirmative for the special permit to pass under this option), he could withdraw his application so he can rework it, or request a continuance to a future meeting for that same purpose. Rodriguez chose the continuance to the board’s September 11 meeting.
In other business, Board Administrator Andreia Lacerda reported there are enough petitions for meetings on September 11 and September 25.
The next meeting of the Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals will be held on Thursday, September 11 at 7:15 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals
By Michael J. DeCicco