03/27/2013 ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS Minutes

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The way that Chapter 40B is written, technically the Zoning Board Permit cannot become a valid permit until those subsequent permits have been issued. The is Planning Board Permit is issued through April 2, 2014, so technically, the Comprehensive Permit could not have lapsed on February 15, 2013, and cannot lapse until the same day as the Planning Board permit. • Doug said; "initially, construction was ready to begin in 2008, but did not proceed because it was the start of the recent recession. Now we are trying to start the project, particularly the financing. When applying for financing for a project this size, one item the bank's attorney looks at is the permit, and noticed the permit had lapsed on February 15, 2013, and was questioned. This meeting is about clearing up the misunderstanding and move forward with the financing." Michael Ford wrote a memo to Jonathan Furbush, dated March 8, 2013 which was discussed with Joyce Mason and Doug said he would like to send this to Pat Costello, Town Council. Joyce said that she would send this to Pat for his review. Pat read Michael's memo and then wrotea subsequent memo that basically said, "Yes, it appears that the permit lapsed for two reasons, the issue about conflicting dates, and the recent recession." Doug said; "in the depths of this recent recession, Governor Deval Patrick pushed forward through the legislature the "Permit Extension Act" and refers to any special permits for development projects to be automatically extended four years to eliminate the process of reapplying. This made sense to extend these two permits to April 2, 2014. Not knowing, the Permit Extension Act exempted 40B projects, and the reason is there were a lot of poorly constructed 40B projects. The State started cleaning up some of these projects, but did not realize that 40B was exempted from "Permit Extension Act", so it looks like this permit expired on February 15, 2013. But in fact it cannot expire until April 2, 2014. So would the Board would agree with Findings 1-23 which explains the details of the permit to be granted the same date as the Planning Board of April 2, 2014." Jon Furbush mentioned he met with Pat Costello on Monday, March 18, 2013 and discussed the letter. Jon received an email that says, "I do not believe this request for extension is unreasonable." Jon Furbush asked; "why the Planning Board permit arrived after the Zoning Board has made a ruling, and their date was different?" Doug stated a permit was issued by the Zoning Board, and then the Planning Board, but the Town Planner said, "No, we have a role here." This argument went back and forth. But brought forward working with the Commission because they have precedence established whereby someone could try and bring forward 40B that was predominately commercial and very limited residential. They only look at the first floor of the buildings, so that came after the Zoning Board permit Which is why the Planning Board is a later date. 5