[Massplanners] (no subject)

[Daniel Fortier]

Alex

The Zoning Act does not give us a mandatory path for preliminary staff review. In Dennis, while I was there, we encouraged everyone to go through Staff Review. It provided a free process to address technical project issues before getting to a Board. They could go through this as many times as they wanted to address the issues before filing, i.e. free plan revisions. When they filed, the application process allowed for one free plan revision. Subsequent revisions cost 50% of the original filing cost to address the demands on staff time. Once, on a Site Plan Review, the Planning Board sought Town Counsel guidance to deny an application that refused to file complete plans. As Site Plan Review projects are generally by-right, we needed to approach this carefully. A lot easier to use the threat of denial on Special Permits to force application compliance.

Daniel Fortier, AICP
Retired Planner



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________________________________
From: MassPlanners <massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org> on behalf of Alex Vyce via MassPlanners <massplanners at masscptc.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2024 1:56:22 PM
To: MassPlanners at masscptc.org <MassPlanners at masscptc.org>
Subject: [Massplanners] (no subject)

Are there any municipalities that allow for a preliminary staff review of submission materials (Site Plan/Special Permit) to check for completeness prior to officially accepting and triggering the hearing requirements of Ch. 40A? It seems that we have been receiving plans that are not meeting the level of completeness set forth by the Ordinances, but the applicant considers to be complete. Later we spend significant time having to chase down all of the needed information.

Thank you,

--
Alex Vyce
City of Holyoke Planning Department
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