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Town of Barnstable
Inspectional Services Department
Brian Florence, Director/Building Commissioner
January 12, 2024
Town of Barnstable Planning Board
Chairman Robichaud
367 Main Street
Hyannis, MA 02601
Re: Zoning Determination for 307 Main Street
Mr. Chairman,
As you know I have been asked by the Planning Board through you to provide a zoning determination concerning
compact parking spaces proposed for 307 Main Street, Hyannis, a project for which the Board has received a
Special Permit application.
The proposal for the subject property was heard at Site Plan Review (SPR) on: ***, ***, *** informally. A formal
review of the application was conducted on: ***. Having heard objections to the dimensions of parking spaces by a
member of the public at the formal review (without citations), I decided to take the matter under advisement to
allow time for me to review the parking provisions of the Zoning Ordinance further, before determining whether or
not the application was approvable under Article IX, the Site Plan Review provisions of the Zoning Ordinance.
Shortly thereafter the petitioner’s attorney requested that I as the Building Commissioner and Chairman of SPR,
find the proposed project to be approvable in accordance with specific parking provisions of 240-24.1.5(C) again,
without citations. Notably, these provisions do not contain dimensional requirements, thus the applicant’s attorney
argued that his client should be allowed to use compact-sized parking spaces for the project. I requested that he
provide me with a legal opinion to that effect which he did, this time including citations. I have included a copy of
that opinion here for your review.
In order to complete my review for consistency with zoning under Article IX, I requested an opinion from the Town
Attorney’s office as to whether or not I had authority under the ordinance to find compact parking spaces
approvable in light of the neighbor’s objections, the opinion of the applicant’s attorney and the ordinance. After
consultation with the Town Attorney’s Office, as well as my review of the Zoning Ordinance, I determined that the
proposal was consistent with Zoning and therefore the matter was deemed by me to be approvable for Site Plan
Review purposes. My affirming determination was made for the following reasons:
1. Section 240-24.1.5. provides Standards for All [Downtown Hyannis Zoning] Districts, and subsection C of
that section contains Parking Standards that are specific to each use which are to be applied in the
Downtown Hyannis Zoning District.
2. The parking table in Section 240-24.1.5. C. is the parking regulation specific to the Downtown Hyannis
Zoning District. Because that section is the more specific regulation to the district the general requirements
found in Article IV Off-Street Parking (cited below) are therefore in conflict with this section which means
that the provisions of 240-24.1.5. C. prevails.
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a. Reference: §240-24.3 - General Provisions: Where the provisions of §§ 240-24.1.1 through 240-
24.1.13 conflict with those found elsewhere in the Barnstable Zoning Ordinance, the provisions of
this section shall apply.
b. Further, the more general parking standards in Section 240-55 & 56 respectively provides:
i. Section 240-55 Conflicting Provisions Any specific provision in any other section of this
chapter relating to parking shall prevail over the provisions of this section.
ii. Section 240-56 - Schedule of Off-Street Parking Requirements – provides for the minimum
parking requirements for the uses stated therein.
3. Because the Downtown Hyannis Zoning District regulations beginning in §240-24-1-1 of the Zoning
Ordinance do not contain provisions regarding parking spaces dimensions, I as the chairman of Site Plan
Review and the zoning enforcement officer, not a policy maker, am not permitted to add dimensional
requirements to the Downtown Hyannis Zoning District provisions of the ordinance. (see also below)
The applicant’s' attorney made the argument in favor of compact spaces in his opinion and the Town
Attorney’s Office agreed with his statement that, “if that if a statute or ordinance is silent on something one
cannot interpret language into the ordinance”. Citing Iodice v. Newton: where, if a statute or bylaw or
ordinance was intended to contain certain language it would be in there and if it is not, it cannot be
interpreted that the drafters meant to include such language.
a. However, the Ordinance here does in fact contain language about which set of parking regulations
to use for each district, so that is not open to interpretation. What is not contained in the relevant
sections of the Ordinance is parking dimensions, so it cannot be read as intending to include
parking dimensions.
4. The Building Commissioner acting as the Chairman for SPR has discretionary authority to issue Site Plan
Approval authorizing the approval of a plan containing compact parking spaces within the Downtown
Hyannis Zoning District. If the Chair were to use his discretionary authority to deny such parking spaces,
the denial, in order to be sustainable would need a valid basis that cannot not be due to dimension (other
than an improper size, e.g. smaller than standard compact spaces).
5. The applicant's attorney further argues that where there is inconsistency, the Building Commissioner must
use his discretionary authority to apply the more specific provisions.
a. I agree that the more specific provisions should be applied, but I do not even think there remains
any inconsistency given the language in the Ordinance that resolves inconsistencies. As stated
above, the Ordinance provides in 2 places (240-55 and 240-24.1.3. A.1.) that the more specific
provisions apply where there is any inconsistency.
Therefore, I determined as the duly appointed zoning enforcement officer and Site Plan Review Chairman of the
Town of Barnstable that the use of compact spaces in the Downtown Hyannis Zoning District is permitted and is
consistent with the zoning ordinance.
Regards,
Brian Florence
Building Commissioner/Chairman
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