If at first you don’t succeed, revise the plans and try again.

That was the path Eastpointe, LLC, followed to secure Zoning Commission approval of plans for a 186-unit, multi-family residential development at 7 North Main Street.

In its second attempt to win Zoning Commission approval of a site plan application, it succeeded. Last week by a vote of four-to-one, the commission approved Eastpointe’s new site plan application for a residential development located in an Incentive Housing Zone (IHZ), multi-family subzone.

“There are 29 points of emphasis in the motion for approval. None of the 29 listed are out of compliance with the regulations or [are items] that cannot be made to be compliant. Lots of conditions have to be met, but they are matters of responsibility,” said Zoning Commission Chairman Robert Friedmann.

“We have had sufficient input and time to make a decision. This is an as-of-right development so there is a checklist for the site plan. It appears to me that the applicant has supplied sufficient information to show compliance” with the regulations, continued Friedmann in introducing the approval motion.

With these comments, Friedmann proposed discussion and action on the motion to approve.

Commissioner J. Colin Heffernan then commented, “The ingress and egress issues [of the first site plan application] have been addressed. Our place is not to comment on the business plan. It is for us to determine if the [site plan] is compliant.”

Heffernan also wanted those who offered public comments and expressed concerns during the public hearings to know the commissioners heard and weighed their concerns.

With no further comments, Friedmann called for a vote—the final vote was four-to-one in favor of commission approval of the new Eastpointe, LLC, site plan application.

After the vote, Eastpointe, LLC’s, principal, Bill Finger, said, “We’re very pleased with the vote tonight. We look forward to building a development the town will be proud of.”

A Bit of Background

In May and June 2013, Eastpointe, LLC, approached the Zoning Commission with a proposal to land an incentive housing zone on the 10.78-acre property and adjacent parcels.

After a public hearing and deliberations on the proposal by the Zoning Commission, in June 2013, the Zoning Commission approved landing an IHZ with a multi-family subzone over the North Main Street land.

It wasn’t until the summer of 2014 that Eastpointe, LLC, and its agent, Attorney Ed Cassella, actually filed a site plan application, asking the commission to weigh its proposal to build 186 residential rental units on the land.

After the public hearing on this application stretched over several months, with several date extensions granted by the applicant, the Zoning Commission finally voted in November 2014 to deny approval because the application was not found to be compliant with the commission’s regulations.

The denial motion listed 41 points of non-compliance, but the key issue for the members speaking that night was the design of driveway access and egress for emergency vehicles and fire trucks.

In addition, the first site plan’s submission didn’t address a number of required Zoning Commission regulations. Among the missing elements were a signage plan and a landscaping plan that showed the size, type, and location of trees to be planted as well as those identifying existing trees that would be saved.

After the November 2014 denial, the applicant asked for an informal discussion with the commission in January 2015 to understand the reasons for denial. Eastpointe’s professionals then used this information as a road map to developing a new site plan application that would win commission approval—which it did last week.