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Date: 6/7/2023
LUDLOW — The Planning Board hosted a meeting on May 25 but was forced to modify the agenda based on a decision made by the Board of Selectmen.
The agenda showed that they were scheduled to host three separate special permit public hearings regarding a conversion of a single garage to a hair/nail salon, an office for a cleaning service business and the redevelopment of a site into a self-storage facility in an Agricultural Moderate Density Overlay District.
Based on protocol, a public hearing notice must be published twice, 10 days apart before the meeting and distributed at least two weeks before the hearing to the applicant, abutters and surrounding communities.
One part of the legal notice raised concern for Planning Board Chair Raymond Phoenix.
A section of the legal notice reads, “Please feel free to view this meeting via cable television as this meeting is broadcast live or via live stream. Instructions are on the town’s website. You may also access the meeting by audio by calling 1-617-758-8793, attending via UberConference or by attending in person.”
Town Planner Doug Stefancik and Phoenix discussed that rules are changing, and Stefancik said that UberConference was no longer available due to the town not paying the bill for the services.
Stefancik added that Gov.Maura Healey recently signed a bill to extend adequate and alternative access to meetings until March 2025.
UberConference is the service that the Planning Board and other committees in Ludlow use to allow residents to virtually call in and attend meetings.
Town Administrator Marc Strange told Reminder Publishing, “The UberConference service was a holdover from the COVID-19 state of emergency that continued until recently. With the state of emergency being lifted, however, we decided not to extend the service as most people who attend public meetings do so in person or watch them on LCTV.”
He added, “If a particular board or committee wants to offer remote access for their meetings, we would certainly support that effort. To date, however, we have not been contacted to do so.”
Members of the Planning Board were concerned that they would be facing an Opening Meeting Law violation due to the legal notice stating people could call into the meeting even though that feature was now unavailable.
“There might be people that read the legal notice and they are desperately trying to contact us via that phone number, and they won’t be able to which is a problem. We need to have this matter go to a different time and date so people can be aware of all the options, and no one is possibly being short changed the opportunity to hear and contribute on a particular matter,” Phoenix added.
The legal notice was published before the conference call option became unavailable.
The Planning Board voted to notify the Board of Selectmen that this situation was created “because the legal notices were already in flight and decisions were made to not pay a bill and that it is having a negative impact a number of things in front of our board this evening,” Phoenix said.
The three public hearings will be rescheduled for the Planning Board meeting on June 22.
Stefancik said that the Planning Board will reach out to its attorney to see if the board still has to make virtual meetings an option based on Healey’s recent extension of virtual meetings or if all public hearings have to be in-person.
The proposed self-storage facility includes adding a development with six storage containers located at 590-596 Center St. in the Agriculture Moderate Density Overlay District where self-storage facilities are allowed with Planning Board Site Plan Approval and Special Permit.
In 2022, JLL Real Estate LLC applied for, had hearings on, and was denied a special permit upon the material then-presented for a self-storage facility for failing to meet or exceed the Ludlow Zoning Bylaw requirements.
JLL appealed the ruling with Hampden County Superior Court and have made changes to the proposed self-storage facility after hearing comments from the Planning Board and the neighborhood.
The updated site plan is scheduled to be discussed at the June 22 Planning Board meeting.