By Pierre Comtois
Lowell Sun
GROTON, Mass — Doubts raised by residents at Thursday night’s Planning Board meeting resulted in the postponement of a vote whether to recommend at Town Meeting a measure that would change the zoning of land where proponents hope to construct a new fire station.
Members gathered to consider two articles, each related to plans to build a new Center Fire Station on land along Farmers Row.
Both articles involved zoning issues that would need to be cleared up at next month’s Town Meeting if plans to build the station are to move forward.
The first article considered by board members Thursday was a straightforward one in which existing bylaws dealing with regulations covering building lots needed to be amended.
According to board Chairman John Giger, the change in the bylaw came to the attention of town officials when the original design plan for the proposed fire station included a training tower that exceeded the 35-foot height limit imposed on other zones in town.
When examined more closely, it turned out that zoning dealing with publicly owned land did not spell out minimum requirements for minimum area, frontage or setbacks. Giger said that such details were overlooked mostly because the town has not had any sizable building projects over the last 10 years or so.
“There hasn’t been a new building built in town for a long time,” said Giger.
But with plans to build a new fire station afoot, the time was right to formally establish the same requirements for public land as for other zones.
Voting on the additions to the bylaw, members will recommend that residents approve the amendment, which will require lots upon which any construction of public buildings is to consist of a minimum of 40,000 square feet, have at least 175 feet of frontage, be no more than 35 feet high or consist of no more than three stories, that buildings on such lots take up no more than 25 percent of the area, and that front, side, and rear setbacks be pegged at 50, 15, and 15 feet, respectively.
On the second measure, a vote to approve the article at Town Meeting would change existing zoning for the Farmers Row land from agricultural to public. The change was deemed necessary by town officials to bring it into uniformity with other publicly owned land as well as to bring the fire-station project under the new zoning requirements for public land.
Fire station opponent Alix Chace asked members not to recommend either article.
Giger said it was the board’s opinion that it would not be in the best interest of the town to consider amending the zoning requirements for public land.
Chace asked if the town could still build a fire station at the Farmers Row site without a change in zoning from agricultural to public and was told that it could by presenting its case to the Zoning Board of Appeals and receiving a special permit.
Even then, the project would be required to conform to any zoning regulations approved for public land.
Chace asked the board to consider not recommending the change based on the fact that the town still had many options for other places to build a fire station, including the site of the former Prescott School.
Defending the work of the Center Fire Station Building Committee, board member Tim Svarczkopf called planning for the project “complete, accurate, and thorough.”
A pair of citizens’ petitions sponsored by Chace and others on the issue will be featured at Town Meeting.
If the change in rezoning at Farmers Row is approved, it would be difficult to undo should the fire-station plan fail. If it remained, then the way would be clear for a future public building project.
Some residents say construction along that section of Farmers Row could ruin one of the most scenic areas of Groton.
A vote on recommendation need not be taken by the board until just before Town Meeting.
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