Planning Board approves Tiny Pillars site plan

The Planning Board met on Monday for a session that ran less than 15 minutes and featured only one appointment: the continuation of the site plan review for Tiny Pillars Childcare.

The new business is intended for the existing property at 258 Dean St, which is at the entrance to Yankee Spirits opposite Stash’s Pizza. Once open for business, it will provide daycare services for up to 36 children ranging from infants to preschoolers, and it will also employ six.

The review had been continued from Sept. 21, after multiple Board members had expressed caution regarding traffic and safety issues – with the small children coming and going from Tiny Pillars informing much of what was discussed. At the heart of it was the proximity of the site’s parking spots to passing vehicles, as well as the general pattern of daycare traffic.

That end of Dean Street near Route 1 is known for its often-heavy congestion, and the location of 258 – abutting the narrow, unstriped public way leading to Yankee Spirits – was well-known to the Board. “The in-and-out is not lined on the street there. It’s kind of the wild west up there,” Board member Debbie Holmwood had said of it at one point during the Sept. 21 appointment.

“The concern is that you’re going to have a mess down there, come drop-off time and pick-up time,” Vice Chair Ernie Paciokowski had added. “People are going to be trying to back out on that first spot, while somebody’s trying to take the corner to come into that street to see if they can get a parking spot, and you’re going to have cars queued up onto Dean.”

A good portion of that appointment had involved Board members suggesting and requesting changes regarding the submitted site plan’s parking configuration and – at its continuance – a handful of parking and traffic related changes had been requested of the applicant.

On Monday, project architect Joseph Diderot presented the revised site plan, which – as alleviating measures – repositioned employee parking toward the Dean Street entrance. It also increased the number of drop-off/pick-up spots from two to six, while shifting them in from the street. Taking input from the Building Department and the Police Department, additional bollards were incorporated into the design, including those used to help create a protected walkway.

“It’s a tough situation in there,” Paciorkowski acknowledged shortly before he motioned for the plan’s approval, which was approved unanimously. “You’ve made the best of what you’ve got.”

Zoning Amendments Town Meeting Warrant Update:

At the Sept. 21 meeting, the Planning Board closed the public hearing on the last of its five proposed zoning amendments. Prior to that, it had maintained a regular schedule over the course of the summer to draft, review, and finalize them – all in its effort to get them onto the Board of Selectmen’s Special Town Meeting Warrant for November, the deadline for which was Sept. 22.

At the BOS meeting the next night, Town Moderator Gerri Slater was asked to comment on the recommended amendments, which were on their own warrant. She suggested that they be held until Town Meeting in March, which is typically reserved for dealing with land use articles, and she added that it would allow for more time to be sure that the draft articles are “truly ready.”

Her suggestion gained immediate traction, and Town Manager Tony Mazzucco advocated for it.

“The idea of trying to do it in March is we’re not yet focused on other items, the budget’s a few months out, and that the Planning Board can go through a lengthy, thoughtful process. They can pause, they can continue hearings, get appropriate review, finish those hearings, and then go forward,” he said in support of the postponement, adding that “I think it would be worth asking the Chair of the Planning Board why they felt the necessity to get it in for November.”

The discussion ran about six minutes, after which Chair Matthew Lane recommended informally inviting “at least” Planning Board Chair Brian Hachey and Town Counsel “if they’re available” to the Oct. 13 meeting to discuss the zoning amendments prior to the vote on the warrants.

The Planning Board next meets on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Senior Center (275 Prospect St.).