TOWN of BEDFORD July 20, 2020 PLANNING BOARD MINUTES
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TOWN OF BEDFORD July 20, 2020 PLANNING BOARD MINUTES A remote Zoom platform meeting of the Bedford Planning Board was held on Monday, July 20, 2020. Members who were present remotely: Jon Levenstein (Chairman), Kelleigh Murphy (Vice Chairman), Hal Newberry (Secretary), Bill Duschatko (Town Council), Rick Sawyer (Town Manager), Jeff Foote (Public Works Director), Mac McMahon, Steve Clough, Priscilla Malcolm, Charlie Fairman (Alternate), Matt Sullivan (Alternate), John Quintal (Alternate), Becky Hebert (Planning Director), and Mark Connors (Assistant Planning Director). I. Call to Order and Roll Call: Chairman Levenstein called the remote meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Phil Greazzo (Town Council Alternate) was absent. Ms. Hebert stated due to the Corona Virus crisis and in accordance with Governor Sununu’s Emergency Order #12 and pursuant to Executive Order #2020-04, the Planning Board is authorized to meet electronically. This meeting is being conducted using the Zoom platform and all members of the Planning Board have the ability to communicate with each other during the meeting, and members of the public has access to listen and participate in the meeting using BCTV broadcast or by logging into the Zoom meeting. There are instructions on how to log into the Zoom on the screen of the BCTV broadcast and instructions have also been published in advanced of this meeting with directions on how to reach Planning staff to get information about how to join the meeting. There is no physical location for this meeting, which is permissible pursuant to the Governor’s order, the Town of Bedford is providing public access to the Zoom telephone and the meeting is also being broadcast live on BCTV’s Channel 22. Members of the public or folks watching from home may email staff directly at Planning@bedfordnh.org and we will be monitoring this email account throughout the meeting. You may also participate and ask questions using the Zoom platform and the phone number for participating via Zoom is listed on the BCTV screen and members of the public can also be given instructions by emailing us at Planning@bedfordnh.org All votes tonight will be taken as a roll call vote. If there are technological issues during the meeting, the Chair will recess the meeting first and we will try resolve any technical issues. If it has become apparent that the meeting cannot continue or if for some reason the meeting is discontinued due to technological issues, the applications will be postponed and the meeting will be adjourned immediately. II. Old Business & Continued Hearings: Town of Bedford Planning Board Minutes – July 20, 2020 2 1. ER Bedford, LLC c/o Encore Retail, LLC (Owner) – Request for approval of a site plan and associated waiver requests, for the proposed Market & Main mixed-use development to include three additional buildings comprising 40,561 square-feet of retail uses, 20,046 square-feet of restaurant uses, a cinema with 11 screens (1800 seats), 200 upper level multi-family units, a 90-room hotel, and associated architectural and site changes at 125 South River Road, Lots 12-33, 12-33-1 and 12-33-2, Zoned PZ. This application was continued from the June 22, 2020 Planning Board meeting. III. New Business: 2. John L. Lang Revocable Trust (Owner) – Request to amend a condition of subdivision approval granted by the Planning Board October 7, 2019, to eliminate a shared driveway and permit a new driveway design at 27 Old Mill Road, Lot 19-29, Zoned R&A. 3. I & Q Enterprises, LLC (Owner) – Request for approval of a Conditional Use Permit to allow six electronic readerboard signs over gasoline pump stations at 381 Boynton Street, Lot 44-23, Zoned HC. 4. Mark Detscher (Owner) – Request for approval of a site plan amendment to allow an outdoor retail sales and display area for an existing consignment shop at 400 Boynton Street, Lot 45-204, Zoned GR. Mr. Connors stated Items 3 and 4 on the agenda have been requested to be postponed to a future Planning Board meeting. Item 3 is postponed to the August 17, 2020 meeting, and Item 4 is postponed to the August 3, 2020 meeting. Chairman Levenstein stated this notice will serve as public notice on these postponed applications. Mr. Connors stated the applications being heard tonight have been reviewed by staff, and staff would recommend that the Planning Board find the applications to be complete. The abutters have been notified, and it is the opinion of staff that the applications do not pose a regional impact. The Board has already determined that the Market & Main application to be complete at the June 22, 2020 meeting. Staff would recommend that the Planning Board accept the agenda, and in so doing, adopt the staff recommendation that the Lang application is complete and it does not pose a regional impact. MOTION by Vice Chairman Murphy to accept the agenda as amended. Councilor Duschatko duly seconded the motion. On a unanimous roll call vote, the motion carried, with this 1. ER Bedford, LLC c/o Encore Retail, LLC (Owner) – Request for approval of a site plan and associated waiver requests, for the proposed Market & Main mixed-use development to include three additional buildings comprising 40,561 square-feet of retail uses, 20,046 square-feet of restaurant uses, a cinema with 11 screens (1800 seats), Town of Bedford Planning Board Minutes – July 20, 2020 3 200 upper level multi-family units, a 90-room hotel, and associated architectural and site changes at 125 South River Road, Lots 12-33, 12-33-1 and 12-33-2, Zoned PZ. This application was continued from the June 22, 2020 Planning Board meeting. Town Manager Sawyer recused himself from this application. Chairman Levenstein stated the applicant will be completing their presentation that they started on that date, including presentation of all of the waiver requests. The applicant will complete their presentation with the exception of the traffic review, which will be reviewed by the Town’s consultant VHB, and they will provide us with a report for the next meeting. We are planning on continuing this meeting until the August 3, 2020 meeting at which time the traffic will be reviewed and explained and we will vote on the application. Attorney John Cronin of Cronin, Bisson and Zalinsky stated I am pleased to be able to continue this application this evening. With me here tonight in the room is Chris Rice of TF Moran, Terry Robinson of ER Bedford, LLC c/o Encore Retail, LLC, Bob Duval of TF Moran, and BJ Powers of Encore Retail, LLC. On the Zoom call we have Mark Fougere, who presented the economic impact statement last month, and also Joel Bargmann of BH & A Architects, who did the architectural designs and went through the layouts. Attorney Cronin stated my plan for this evening, as initially stated by the Chairman, is to go through and pick up where we left off, we were going to talk about the waivers, discuss particularly the market rate housing waiver that we are seeking, and also address some of the questions that have percolated from the conceptual design review and some of the re- engineering, including why we don’t believe workforce housing is appropriate for this particular site. Chris Rice is going to handle the multitude of the waivers and take you through them. Many of these waivers were already granted in the prior application. As you recall, this is an amendment to an existing site plan. There has been some discussion with staff; our perspective is some of those, and we would reserve the right to argue that those are vested based on the substantial construction that has been completed, both with The Friendly Toast and Trader Joe’s. But for the purposes of this presentation and this plan, we have applied for them at the direction of the staff, we are going to present them fully, and we will expect you to vote on them, we just wanted to make it clear for the record that we are going to reserve our rights with respect to that issue. We know that traffic will be bound over to the next meeting, we certainly hope that we will have time this evening to take some questions from the Board and we can hopefully answer them to your satisfaction. If there is additional time left, we understand there may or may not be opportunity for public comment. If there is, where this is a large case, there has been a lot of discussion and a lot of time, I looked at my calendar today and it has been over a year since this amendment has been in the queue, and there has been a lot of effort with respect to conceptual design reviews and going back to the drawing board. If you recall, when this amendment first came in 290 apartments were proposed and that was scaled back substantially to where we are at today, and I think one of the important things to keep in mind that although the number is 200 residential units, you are looking at 74 2-bedroom units, which is relatively modest. There is a conflict with respect to the binder, and all of you should have a binder that we submitted weeks ago with the 44 or so exhibits, at Tab 16 there is reference to 80 2-bedroom units, and that has since been scaled down. Town of Bedford Planning Board Minutes – July 20, 2020 4 I know it has been a month and there are probably going to be some questions that you have, so I am briefly going to go through some slides.