[Massplanners] (no subject)

[Jeff Lacy]

I’d say you would have better success setting up a preliminary staff review for site plans versus special permits. This is because SPR is a creature of a town’s home rule authority rather than something derived from and detailed in statute, like special permits. Special permits require some 20 steps as specified in the Zoning Act - you have to do them that way. As for site plan review, as long as constitutional and not contradicted by statute, a town can set it up as they prefer.

There is a court case that established some bounds as to under what situations site plan review can be denied; it’s called the Prudential case. Court said that SPR may denied if: not a complete application; not compliant with zoning requirements; or cannot be conditioned so to meet the applicable performance standards.

Jeff Lacy
Rural Planning Associates 
(413) 230-9693

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 14, 2024, at 2:58 PM, Alex Vyce via MassPlanners <massplanners at masscptc.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 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
> --
> MassPlanners mailing list
> MassPlanners at masscptc.org
> http://masscptc.org/mailman/listinfo/massplanners_masscptc.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://masscptc.org/pipermail/massplanners_masscptc.org/attachments/20240514/70485025/attachment.htm>