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HomeMy WebLinkAbout307 Main Planning Board Determination_24 Office (508) 862-4038 Fax (508) 790-6230 1 www.town.barnstable.ma.us 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: 8/15/2023 and 10/24/2023 informally. A formal review of the application was conducted on: 11/16/2023. 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. www.town.barnstable.ma.us 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 www.town.barnstable.ma.us 4 www.town.barnstable.ma.us