The Marion Planning Board Master Plan/Bylaw Subcommittee, which set out to formulate a new “Formula Business” Bylaw to protect the character of Marion and restrict the construction of “big box” stores, has moved beyond the rhetoric of CVS and drive-thru windows typical of one of its meetings and arrived at a place of precariousness – creating a bylaw that does not conflict with or duplicate already existing zoning bylaws.

The current draft bylaw, which continues to evolve, actually proposes three separate bylaws to address the three issues of dimensional use, formula business, and blight/nuisance.

The draft Dimensional Use Bylaw proposes adding two more columns to the existing Dimensional Requirements Table, addressing maximum lot coverage and minimum green space.

It gives ratios for all business zoning districts and proposes a ratio of 60 percent lot coverage and 20 percent green space for the general business zone.

Discussion began with the acknowledgement that this proposed bylaw might already conflict with existing zoning regulations.

Vice-Chairman of the subcommittee Norman Hills right away asked how someone came up with the ratios proposed and called the numbers “absurd.”

“Some of these numbers…” said Hills. “You could still come up with a pretty damned big building.” He suggested separating impervious surfaces like walkways and parking lots from the building lot coverage to address them as separate entities, in his words.

Subcommittee member Ted North mentioned capping the building size in Marion to not exceed maximum building dimensions of “X, Y, and Z” as the way to go.

Although this draft bylaw would have no affect on a tentatively proposed CVS for the corner of Front Street and Route 6, Hills acknowledged that CVS was the impetus for the Zoning Bylaw Subcommittee’s efforts to protect the character of the town.

“I’m not sure this solves that problem,” said Hills. “This whole concept needs to be flushed out one time so we don’t keep springing back trying to solve the same problem. We need numbers that are going to do what we want them to do. And that’s something you can’t do overnight.”

Hills said the bylaw should address minimum lot size, but was wary of how the subcommittee could avoid conflicting with current zoning bylaws.

“You twist something here and something else falls off the edge over here,” said Hills.

In a memorandum to Planning Board Chairman Steve Kokkins, Building Commissioner Scott Shippey responded to the draft bylaws the board sent to him for comment, saying right away that he found several conflicts and issues.

“The proposed ‘Maximum Lot Coverage’ and ‘Minimum Green Space Coverage’ numbers may be in conflict with other existing bylaws,” wrote Shippey. “Most of the lots in Marion are preexisting nonconforming lots and are already held to only 40% coverage … for residential districts.”

Shippey also wrote that general, marine, and limited industrial zones are already required to maintain 20 percent of the lot area as “open space.” Under the proposed bylaw, marine and limited industrial would be at 70 percent max lot coverage and 30 percent green space.

“This is a very difficult task for a proposed business to achieve in accordance with the existing bylaws and the new proposed bylaw,” stated Shippey. “The numbers do not match up and are in direct conflict with existing bylaws.”

During discussions about the draft Formula Business Bylaw, the subcommittee again acknowledged that the Town cannot exclude the so-called ‘big box’ stores from coming to Marion, but they can restrict them.

“Which we have done,” stated North. Hills replied, “Which is what we are trying to do.”

There was talk about businesses using large windows to display signs typical of a franchise, and the subcommittee debated whether restricting that is beyond the Planning Board’s purview of regulating the exterior of the building and not the interior.

North reminded the subcommittee that the bylaw seeks mainly to define a formula business and make the determination for the site plan review process.

“We restrict signage on the outside,” as well as certain elements of a formula business, said Subcommittee Chairman Rico Ferrari. “And we dumb it down, yet we have glass space that dumbs it back up because you can see it from the outside.”

After some discussion, the subcommittee determined that this matter would fall under the Town’s sign ordinance, which is Shippey’s territory.

Within the draft Formula Business Bylaw, there is language to regulate and minimize “business branding,” anything on the exterior designed to identify the structure with any particular franchise or chain store. Under the draft bylaw, businesses would have to construct buildings more “consistent with the town’s architectural composition, character, and historical context … including the preservation of the colonial and early New England styles, colors, and textures of a small rural seaside community.”

Shippey commented on this, writing: “I believe case law allows reasonable restriction but not exclusion.” He continued, “Using the guidelines Marion has set forth for ‘Big Box’ stores can ensure the continuity and characteristic s of Marion.”

The sense of urgency of past meetings to have a Formula Business Bylaw for the May Town Meeting seems to have subsided, as subcommittee members acknowledge that there might not be enough time before article submission deadlines.

“I’m not feeling the pressure … that pressure that was given with the solar bylaw…” said Ferrari. “I don’t want to fall into that pitfall of hurry, hurry, hurry.”

Hills concurred, saying, “There doesn’t seem to be a dying need for this right this second.”

Attention turned to the need to codify the Town’s Zoning Bylaws, which some members have already discussed with the town administrator who mentioned hiring a contractor to assist in the process.

After the meeting, Kokkins said the winter weather, which accounted for several cancelations and postponements of Planning Board and subcommittee meetings, was an impediment to the formula bylaw process.

“At a point when time was very critical,” added Kokkins.

The subcommittee has not scheduled its next meeting, but the Marion Planning Board will meet on Tuesday, February 17 at 5:00 pm at the Marion Town House.

By Jean Perry

The Town of Marion was given four more days past the allotted comment period to respond to the Environmental Protection Agency’s draft NPDES permit, which threatens to shut down the Town’s three sewage holding lagoons located at the end of Benson Brook Road. NPDES stands for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

Engineering firm CDM Smith has been working with Town Administrator Paul Dawson on a reply to defend the Town’s position that the data the EPA used to determine the wastewater facility’s impact on the environment was flawed. Dawson also says that the new maximum nitrogen output levels are impossible, even with the latest technology available to mitigate nitrogen pollution.

Dawson says the EPA used data from a study conducted by the Buzzards Bay Coalition, which he referred to in the past as scientifically unsound. That study alleges that the Marion wastewater lagoons are one of the largest single sources of nitrogen pollution into Sippican Harbor, leeching nitrogen into the groundwater and into the surrounding watershed.

If the lagoons were ordered to shut down by the EPA, it could cost the Town somewhere around $15 million for a new wastewater treatment plant.

CDM Smith was initially on the agenda for the February 3 meeting of the Marion Board of Selectmen, but had to be removed and placed on the agenda of a February 5 special meeting of the selectmen due to the impact of the past two storms. Representatives from CDM, Dawson said, had been held up due to hazardous driving weather, snow travel bans, and resulting meeting cancelations with the Town.

As per the request of Dawson, the EPA granted the four-day extension to the comment period because of the weather, pushing it back to Friday, February 6.

The weather also halted a meeting Dawson had with environmental law firm Hall & Associates based in Washington, D.C. Attorney John Hall was scheduled to meet with Dawson while visiting the Boston area, but the meeting was canceled because of the blizzard.

Dawson emphasized that the law firm has not yet been hired to formally represent the Town; rather, the Town is seeking initial advice from the experienced law firm that is representing other towns in the Taunton area.

In other matters, selectmen approved the timeline Dawson proposed for soliciting and hiring a new fire chief to replace Fire Chief Thomas Joyce, who announced last month that he will be retiring on July 1.

Advertising for the position will begin March 5, providing a deadline date for resume submissions of April 10.

“With an eye towards making a selection of the new fire chief at the May 19 (selectmen’s) meeting,” added Dawson.

But is that enough time, Selectman Jody Dickerson wondered.

“I’m just afraid if there’s somebody selected,” said Dickerson, “are they going to have enough time or notice to leave (their current employer)?”

Dawson said the schedule gives the new candidate a total of six weeks from the date of notification of selection to July 1, the first day on the job.

Also during the meeting, the board voted to partner with the Marion Affordable Housing Trust in seeking Community Preservation funding to purchase additional affordable housing units from the Bay Watch project.

Selectmen Chairman Jonathan Henry suggested the board make the presentation to the Marion Community Preservation Commission when the time comes to apply for the funding, which Dawson speculated would be “more warmly received” by the CPC.

The next scheduled meeting of the Marion Board of Selectmen is the special meeting with CDM Smith on February 5 at 7:00 pm in the Marion Police Station conference room.

By Jean Perry