Robert Hirsch’s shopping plaza at 285 Ayer Road became a contentious topic at this week’s Planning Board meeting.
Cal Goldsmith, vice president of Goldsmith, Prest & Ringwall, Inc., of Ayer, an engineering firm representing Hirsch, brought a request to the Planning Board at the Aug. 16 meeting that included a note to Liz Allard, Harvard’s Land Use Administrator, stating, “We’re just looking for permission to relocate the sign to be in conformance with zoning setbacks.”
The change proposed by Goldsmith would move the sign for the businesses in the plaza some number of feet back from the road, but not onto a traffic island in the center of the entrance to the plaza, as proposed on the original site plan for the plaza from 1974. Such a traffic island would replace the Jersey barriers currently occupying the entrance to the plaza.
Moving the sign was one of several conditions the Board of Selectmen (BOS) set earlier this year when it approved Hirsch’s application for one of three off-premises liquor licenses the board was authorized to issue by Town Meeting and the state legislature. Approval was conditional on Hirsch bringing the sign into compliance by November, when the new license comes up for renewal. Hirsch had told selectmen his goal was to accomplish that by the end of August.
According to the site plan for the plaza on file with Harvard’s Planning Board, the sign is not where it is supposed to be and had yet to be moved. Moreover, zoning enforcement officer and building inspector Gabe Vallente has yet to say that the plaza has complied with all of the town’s protective bylaws.
Discussion of Hirsch’s request raised sharp differences of opinion between Planning Board member Kara Minar and Chairman Joe Sudol over whether Hirsch’s sign request could be dealt with as an item separate from the overall site plan for the plaza. Minar contended that once the question of the sign is taken up, the entire site plan, including several items in the plaza that are not in compliance with the town’s bylaws, is open to discussion. Sudol contended that signs can be dealt with by the board as items separate from the site plans of which they are a part. He insisted that the entire site plan “was not the issue,” but rather that signs could be dealt with separately.
After lengthy and, at times, heated debate, the board agreed to direct the question to Town Counsel Mark Lanza, asking him for a written opinion on the process for revising a site plan in Harvard. Members also agreed to continue the discussion at the next Planning Board meeting.
Selectman Tim Clark, who was present at the meeting, directed a letter to the board listing findings of the BOS regarding deficiencies in the plaza’s site plan and suggesting that the plaza be “brought into conformance with the town bylaws.” Clark’s letter cites a letter from Building Commissioner Gabe Vallente, which states “the current free-standing sign is in violation of the town’s bylaws.” Clark’s letter goes on to reference a modified site plan for the plaza, dated July 1979, and cites noncompliance of the plaza’s driveway access and entry, roadside site signage, parking layouts, and more.
At the Aug. 17 meeting of the BOS, Sudol took formal exception to Clark’s participation at the Planning Board meeting, requesting that members of the Board of Selectmen not interfere in Planning Board meetings and stating that he was not accepting Clark’s letter. Selectmen agreed to discuss Clark’s letter at their next meeting.