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04/26/2016 02:45 PM

Saybrook Zoning Commission Denies Mariner’s Way Petitions


A package of zoning changes proposed by the Economic Development Commission for the Mariner’s Way planning area were met with skepticism by the Zoning Commission last month. Six of seven petitions that would adapt zoning for the area around Ferry Road and the easternmost leg of the Boston Post Road were denied unanimously.

The town Economic Development Commission (EDC)’s goal in proposing the petitions was to try to correct the mix of zoning designations in the Mariner’s Way planning area and to find ways through zoning changes, to encourage both development and re-development of the area.

Members of the commission appeared to agree with some business and property owners along Boston Post Road East that the proposed changes were viewed as significant and perhaps too much all at once. Both commissioners and members of the public who spoke at the public hearings appeared concerned about possible unintended consequences, if the petitions for changes were approved.

During the public hearing process, some property owners in the Mariner’s Way area expressed opposition to the petition that, if approved, would have re-zoned their properties from B-4 to B-3. Through that change, some businesses would have become a non-conforming use. Though though businesses would have been able to operate as-is, even if sold, those business owners were concerned about a loss of rights to make changes allowed under current zoning rules.

For example, if a current B-4 district were changed to a B-3 district, residential uses would then be permitted; if a parcel were to add residences under the new zone, that might affect a current business’s ability to add current B-4 uses that cause noise or dust.

Commissioners in their deliberations raised concerns that the denied changes, if approved, could potentially provide a loophole in the town’s zoning rules that would give applicants for big box stores a path for approval.

Chairman Robert Friedman commented that one proposed change to cap a “marine recreation marketplace” at 150,000 square feet would allow stores larger than allowed in other similar business areas of town where the size limit is 85,000 square feet. He also was concerned about a lack of specificity in the definition of a marine recreation marketplace and in the language describing the purpose.

The two denied petitions to create a new Mariner’s Way Overlay Zone were intended to encourage marine and recreational uses along Boston Post Road East. The petition also would have added in uses of food trucks and marine recreation marketplace as permitted. Had the petition to create a new zone been approved, another EDC petition to land the zone over more than two dozen parcels would have been considered. When the first petition was denied, the second was now moot and also denied.

A proposed pedestrian node along Boston Post Road East was also denied.

Now the EDC will have to re-group and decide whether to re-work the zoning amendment petitions and re-apply. Since the EDC held more than 30 meetings and workshops to develop, present, and take public comment on these Mariner’s Way zoning proposals, this may prove a daunting task.

The Mariner’s Way Plan, as concept, has won support from the town’s Planning Commission. The plan was incorporated into the Plan of Conservation and Development by an earlier vote of the Planning Commission.

Old Saybrook’s current Zoning regulations are posted at www.oldsaybrookct.org; click on Zoning Commission heading.