The Marion Planning Board held a public hearing for Copper Medal, LLC at their regular meeting on Monday, January 7. The subject of the hearing was the rescission of a definitive subdivision plan that had been approved by the Board on July 20, 2009.
Dave Davignon, the representative of Copper Medal, LLC, the developer, explained that there were originally six lots. One, which did not appear on the map used in his presentation, had been sold. Of the remaining five lots, one had been divided into two. This subdivision was the focus of the hearing.
In the 2009 subdivision plan, two lots were created from a seven-acre parcel of land. A road, to be called Sea Haven Lane, and a drainage area were to be constructed before houses could be built on the lots. However, the lots were never sold; neither was the road nor the drainage area constructed, Davignon said.
“The purpose for Sea Haven Lane was to construct frontage for a secondary lot from that seven-acre lot,” Davignon said. “By eliminating the roadway, we would have sufficient frontage along Converse Road. It’s more a procedural thing than anything else this evening.”
Only two abutters were present at the public hearing, one of whom represented the Sippican Lands Trust. Both asked the Planning Board for clarification of what Davignon was requesting of the Board for that evening. Their concerns were largely about potential development on the land, such as where on the lots any houses could be built, and where the wetlands were delineated. The abutters were informed that the Board only was concerned with, at the moment, the rescission of the definitive subdivision plan and, after the conclusion of the public hearing, the submittal of an ANR application for some of the lots.
The Board unanimously voted to rescind the 2009 definitive subdivision plan and closed the hearing.
Next, the Board heard the ANR application from Davignon on behalf of Copper Medal, LLC. The ANR plan would combine two of the five lots which the developer still owns.
“We’re consolidating two of the three lots to the south [of the lot that had been previously subdivided],” Davignon said. “The purpose of the ANR is to reconfigure those five lots and consolidate them to four. The middle lot, nearly eight acres, would be purchased by a buyer looking to build a single-family home.”
The Board unanimously voted to approve the ANR plan, although it will be held by the Board until the end of the 20-day appeal period for the rescission of the definitive subdivision plan.
Davignon informed the Board that, in about a month, he would most likely return with an application for a special permit to construct an association pier.
In its other business, Chairman Jay Ryder read an excerpt from a letter addressed to the Marion Board of Selectmen, in which the Town of Marion was recognized as being in the top three municipalities in the annual town report contest. The award was of little surprise to Ryder.
“There’s a lot of information in [the report] and it’s very well organized,” he said. “I love writing the Planning Board summary for it.”
The next meeting of the Marion Planning Board will be held on Tuesday, January 22 at 5:00 pm in the Marion Police Station Community Room.
By Anne Smith
