There was division among the members of the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals after receiving a November 7 letter from Mark Bobrowski, developer Ken Steen’s attorney, seeking relief for his client from a previously agreed upon timeline stipulating that certain fees are due within 10 days of the issuance of the first building permit for the construction of Heron Cove Estates.

            At a prior meeting with Steen and Town Administrator Geoff Gorman, ZBA Chairperson Cynthia Callow asked Steen to verify his request that the town henceforth regard those timelines as insubstantial as opposed to substantial. Callow reported that Gorman was concerned that Steen was scheming to avoid paying sewer installation fees but believes the developer is merely looking to defer those payments.

            Callow read from Bobrowski’s letter, “We are not looking or expecting any of the fees to be waived. We will be paying the total amount of fees previously agreed to. (Those include) $590,000 for the (infiltration and inflow sewer-related treatment), $410,000 for (sewer) connection, and up to, not to exceed $110,000 as a contribution toward the replacement of the Creek Road (pump) station. We are simply requesting the timing of the payments be adjusted pursuant of the former requests.”

            Callow then turned to the ZBA membership, suggesting the involvement of Town Counsel. She suggested that with a tweak requiring that permit fees be waived until the beginning of the laying of a foundation, “I think everybody would be in agreement with that, and I think that we could go forward with the project.”

            Not everyone agreed.

            Tucker Burr articulated concern that Steen could put himself in a position to drag things out, but Callow reminded him that the ZBA set a five-year limit on construction, a year of which has been eaten up without any activity on the site.

            Burr thinks it could handcuff the town by releasing the leverages it presently has with the requirements of the agreement on payments 10 days after the issuance of permits.

            “I think that he has no intention of ever building the sewer. I think the only way that sewer line’s ever getting built is if Matt Zuker builds it,” said Burr.

            Callow did not hesitate to disagree. “Matt Zuker hasn’t done anything either,” she said.

            “I think what winds up happening is they get into a game of chicken, and it just never gets built,” said Burr. “I think they’re both going to be in this game of chicken, and what’s going to happen is Marion is going to end up with this 40B development that we’re going to be obligated to always support and have absolutely no strings to pull on. Then we’re going to eventually get below the 8% (affordable housing), we’re still going to be obligated to let him build it, and other people are going to be able to come in over the next five years and apply for a 40B.”

            The present agreement obligates the developer to install a sewer line to serve the project along the northern portion of Route 6, Wareham Road, to Hill Street. Said sewer line is to be designed and installed in accordance with all rules, regulations and policy as approved by the Marion Water & Sewer Commissioners (the Select Board.) Construction and installation is a condition precedent (antecedent) to the issuance of a building permit. (Callow noted that this condition was not part of the original agreement.)

            Within 10 days following the receipt of a single or combination of building permits, the applicant shall pay the town $590,000 for the town’s use for improving the I/I into the town’s wastewater treatment work.

            In the same time frame, the agreement obligates Steen to pay the town 10% of the bid cost to repair and replace the Creek Road Pump Station up to a maximum payment of $110,000, the same deemed a critical component of the town’s sewer system.

            In the same time frame, Steen is to pay the town $410,000 for connection to the town’s wastewater treatment work.

            Callow’s interpretation of Steen’s request is that he wanted to pull a building permit without being required to pay these fees within the next 10 days. “That’s my understanding,” she said.

            Callow stuck to her optimism that Steen intends to build his affordable-housing development.

            “I do not believe they are stalling tactics,” said Callow. “I think it has to do with economy, I think it has to do with he’s a businessman.” Callow acknowledged that Zuker’s delay most likely factors in Steen’s.

            Callow’s understanding of the overall plan is that Steen and Zuker are obligated to split the costs of sewer upgrades in keeping with their agreements with the town, but she feels as though, right when they should be meeting to work things out, they go away from each other.

            Callow told the membership that Gorman has granted her permission to discuss the matter directly with Town Counsel. She encouraged the board to submit questions.

            Citing past losses in legal battles with Steen over “substantial versus insubstantial” changes, Callow advised the board not to make that a battlefield for the town.

            “We’re treading on thin ice here, and we’re all trying to do the right thing by the town. I think he intends to build it, I just do. He’s never given me a reason (to doubt),” said Callow, emphasizing due diligence at this point. “That is my plan going forward.”

            Select Board member Randy Parker, in attendance, was given the floor, and said he has gone through the agreement “thoroughly” and discussed the issues with Gorman and Grillo.

            “I’m agreeable to it. I think it’s a cash-flow thing,” said Parker. “I think the price of money is expensive, and quite frankly for him to get going on this and spend all that money up front have to pay interest … is expensive. I find him to be sincere.”

            Parker admitted to prior confusion over the issue of Steen paying for permits but insisted the rest of the matter is about cashflow.

            Callow agreed.

            Grillo suggested tweaks to the latter to be submitted to legal counsel for feedback, stating that the permits shall be issued without any “initial fees.” He also suggested the addition of a sentence stipulating that “all building permit fees to be paid in full prior to the start of foundation for each individual unit.”

            Because Steen will have a separate building permit for each unit, Grillo said Steen should not have to pay for all the permits at once.

            In the end, all members present supported the action.

            After a continued public hearing, applicants Eric Winer and Nancy Borstelmann were voted a Special Permit allowing the extension of an existing, nonconforming, side-yard setback at 18 West Avenue.

            “What we’re doing is extending an existing nonconformity on the north, gable end of the structure,” said Representative Henry Bobeck, noting a detached garage with a living space.

            Callow thanked the applicants for agreeing to continue the case due to the lack of membership available to hear the case.

            The next meeting of the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals was not scheduled upon adjournment.

Marion Zoning Board of Appeals

By Mick Colageo

            A not-your-everyday feature on Monday’s Marion Energy Management Committee agenda was the Town Administrator’s Energy Reduction Plan.

            Only without agenda author Christian Ingerslev – the chairman was away and unable to attend the November 27 meeting – the committee was at a loss to define the item. However, rather than bypass it, a lively banter ensued as to whether this might mean the Energy Reduction Plan submitted to the state when the Town of Marion first joined Green Communities or a new one to be composed now that Marion has reached the state-prescribed, 20% energy-reduction goal.

            “We have gone from top to bottom with just a few exceptions that didn’t seem like the right thing to do, and we’ve done new (initiatives) … We’re eligible for more grant money,” said EMC member Bill Saltonstall, further noting that he and Marion Facilities Manager Shaun Cormier recently met with Energy Source to discuss the utility company’s involvement in energy upgrades to the town’s Wastewater Treatment Plant. Those will include heat pumps and new computer/operating systems. “I expect them to write a proposal similar to the one in the (original) paperwork.”

            Saltonstall reported that Cormier would also like to install heat pumps at the Police Department instead of gas heat. “I expect they will come up with a request for money for that,” he said.

            The committee also revisited solar projects, but Saltonstall said there is no grant money forthcoming for those. He expects Energy Source to write up information on the projects that would be eligible for grant funding over the next three or four months.

            EMC member Eileen Marum asked if the town administrator is thinking about going through buildings the town has renovated in order to “get them tighter.” She also identified the Town House elevator and shaft as energy-leaking areas.

            “Whenever Shaun’s got time, they’re taking on another room or two (in the Town House) for interior modifications … right now, most of the rooms in the building are uninsulated,” said Saltonstall, estimating that the town paid between $300,000 and $400,000 for window work at the Town House. “I think it’s a lot better than it was.”

            EMC member Alanna Nelson, presiding over the meeting in Ingerslev’s absence, said that an endowment to the Music Hall paid for an audit of that building’s energy profile performed by DG Services. She said they produced a good idea of what an energy-reduction plan should look like.

            The Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative (CVEC) is representing Marion in negotiations to establish the long-planned, capped-landfill, solar project at Benson Brook, but the EMC membership that has worked so long in trying to make this happen is ironically sitting outside the information highway where it concerns hard financial figures for a power-purchase agreement on a lease program and the project’s current status.

            In an update on the Department of Public Works operations center, Saltonstall, whose son Will Saltonstall is the lead designer of the new approved for Benson Brook, told the committee that while he has heard a little about the project, he thinks “they’re still haggling out budget problems.”

            The EMC would dearly love to see a solar array on the new DPW’s roof, and the designed is meant to make that possible. Solar, however, is not in the construction budget and is not funded via the state’s Green Communities program.

            DPW funding was approved in a May 9, 2022, vote to authorize the town to borrow $3,000,000 toward a $4,500,000, three-building headquarters that would include repair bays and office space in one building, covered parking in another and the salt shed in a third. That plan has since been consolidated to one building for operations and storage and a second structure for the salt shed.

            According to Saltonstall, solar projects below a 15kw capacity, which includes most single-family homes, move with far greater ease through the bureaucratic process and get a grid connection. Therefore, the EMC has directed its attention toward smaller projects first, and the best of those is the Police Department building off Route 6 across from Benson Brook Road.

            Police headquarters was described as “a nice, clean building” with ample “dead space” that would make a solar array “easy to wire” and with “enough roof space to go up to (the 15kw) limit.”

            The committee is still looking at the Cushing Community Center roof and obviously, the DPW roof, as places for solar panels.

            “PowerOptions wanted to make a proposal on all of these things … I’d love to see some proposals, but the first one is the Police Department,” said Saltonstall. “How much further we can go, I don’t know. We’re going to have to get a lease agreement.”

            Saltonstall is working with EMC member Tom Friedman on the lease agreement, and Nelson agreed that the Police Department “is the hot spot.”

            Nelson senses more progress with CVEC than Saltonstall has had with PowerOptions and Friedman with Blue Skies. The members want meetings and information that would inform their next steps.

            Nelson said the town would give the CVEC a list of Marion projects and dimensions, and in turn the CVEC would come up with estimates so Marion could put work into producing bid documents.

            “Because interconnection pricing is already taken care of, they should be ready to roll,” said Nelson, who added that the costs are frequently absorbed by the CVEC before it rolls around and comes back to the town. The immediate objective is to learn what the town would have to pay and when. When Nelson acquires that information, she will report back to the EMC.

            As for the solar array at the Benson Brook landfill, remaining delays can be traced to lease agreements. Nelson and Saltonstall agree that for the town to approve a lease agreement, the committee needs to know more information. The town is waiting on others.

            What the committee would really like is for Maria Marasco of CVEC, Lisa Sullivan of Green Communities and Town Administrator Geoff Gorman to meet with the committee and help the members tie up loose ends.

            “We used to have people come all the time. I think we should overtly invite them,” said EMC member Jennifer Francis, attending the meeting remotely.

            Friedman suggested that this may extend beyond draggy processes but include pullbacks and attempts to renegotiate.

            “I wouldn’t be surprised if this is falling into that same black hole as offshore wind … approved by the state at a certain rate, then withdrawn as unacceptable because of the perception that they can do better,” he said.

            Saltonstall said it has become easier to track the status of township vehicles because the vehicle identification number for every registered vehicle has become more accessible. Even if a vehicle is moved to another department, it has to be more energy-efficient than the one it replaces.

            Saltonstall told the committee he was ready to give the Green Communities report by Tuesday, the day after the EMC’s public meeting. Friedman suggested linking to the report via the committee’s page on marionma.gov and said he would inquire on the matter with Town Clerk Lissa Magauran.

            The committee will hear from Arnie Johnson, the proprietor of the Fieldstone store on Route 6. Johnson will attend the EMC’s January 22 meeting and talk about his expansion plan. Marum suggested that Ingerslev, Saltonstall, Friedman and Francis can make recommendations, given they all have solar panels on their houses.

            The next meeting of the Marion Energy Management Committee is scheduled for Monday, January 22, 2024, at 6:00 pm at the Police Station on Route 6.

Marion Energy Management Committee

By Mick Colageo