[Massplanners] Planning Board "determination" and decision

[robert leavens]

A late Friday question.............

I recently started working as interim town planner for a small town north
of Boston.
I was recently contacted by an architect who wanted to go to the Planning
Board for an "advisory determination" for a project within the water supply
district.  There is a provision that the impervious surface of a lot has to
be lower than 15%.  While the bylaw is oddly worded, this "advisory
determination" of the Planning Board involves attending a Planning Board
meeting, having the Planning Board review the plans, have someone else
review the drainage calculations and then a "decision" would be issued and
filed with the town clerk.  No notice to abutters and the architect wanted
to get on the next agenda, which is 12 days away.

I've been in this profession for over 30 years, with work mainly in
Massachusetts and I have some concerns about this process.  I don't believe
that the Planning Board can make an "advisory determination" and then issue
a decision that gets filed with the Town Clerk without due notice and a
public hearing.  The language throughout the bylaw implies special permit
but that is not how it has been interpreted in the past years.

Do any of your Planning Boards issue "advisory determinations", with no
public hearing or abutters notice, with an end result of a written decision
that get filed with the Town Clerk?

Thanks for any insights I may have missed,

Betsy Ware
Interim Town Planner
Town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA.
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