Article 15 has issues

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor

EAST LONGMEADOW Although only 100 signatures were needed to bring an article forward for the Special Town Meeting, Sandro Meccia gathered more than 200 from East Longmeadow citizens who wanted to amend zoning bylaws regarding small businesses in the town.

Including the panels, boards, committees and residents, nearly 400 people attended the meeting, ready to vote and voice their opinions.

Meccia, owner of Mec's Landscaping on Hampden Road, presented an article that asked voters to amend zoning bylaws to include home-based services businesses by special permit. A home-based service business is a business owned and operated by a resident of the premises, which must be at least one acre in size, can employ no more than four individuals who are not family members, and has to be a plumbing, electrical, landscaping or small construction business.

The article also asked to amend the bylaws to allow in any residential zone home occupations, such as home offices and studios, with special permits.

Donald Anderson of the Planning Board told the assembled voters the board "did not recommend this article" because of the problems this version presented. There were a few typographical errors such as allowing trailers over 20 feet in length in one section, trailers under 20 feet in another and subsection F(3)(e)[2] referred to subsection F(3)(c)[3], which does not exist in the document.

"This bylaw as it is presented benefits lawyers, traffic flow engineers, architects, everyone but the business owner," Anderson said. "Current bylaws allow for home businesses in residential areas, but they need to be updated."

As murmuring grew louder in the high school's auditorium, Marilyn Richards, chair of the Planning Board, took the podium to address the crowd. "If voted on tonight, this blaw would change the town forever," she said. The crowd quieted.

"This proposal will not work," she continued. Richards explained that the amended bylaw would put no limit on the number of small businesses allowed in residential neighborhoods and the bylaw needed further study, review and revision. "This would be an enforcement nightmare," she added.

"I'm not looking to ruin the town," Meccia told Reminder Publications after the meeting. "There's a business on every street in East Longmeadow. Plenty of people started businesses in their home which expanded and needed to move. A lot of the small businesses in this town are happy where they are, though."

Two amendments were made to the article, including fixing typographical errors and tabling the article until the Annual Town Meeting in May 2008.

Additionally, a moratorium on fines and cease and desist orders for some of the businesses in town was put in place.

Meccia, who employees three full-time and two part-time workers, was handed a cease and desist order in May by the building inspector for having too many work vehicles parked on his property. He complied with the order and moved his vehicles to another site, a move that cost $1,000 a month in rental fees, according to Meccia.

Robyn MacDonald, director of Planning, Zoning and Conservation for the town of East Longmeadow, said she will be setting up a committee of three to five people to work with the Planning Board on developing a new bylaw before the town meeting.

"We're looking for different levels of small business the individual worker, a business with one or two employees and something larger, with three or four employees," she said. "It will be a difficult task and the time will pass quickly, but we need to iron this out. The goal is to make a bylaw the Planning Board can recommend to the town."

Richards said that members of the Planning Board are "absolutely interested in spearheading this together" with the small business owners of the town.

"It's been estimated that there are between 80 and 90 small businesses in East Longmeadow," Richards stated. "If this article had been approved, we'd be working on 10 special permits a meeting, and every home occupation and home-based service business would have to supply us with floor plans, plot plans and where vehicles would be parked."

Despite some of the personal attacks from residents at the special town meeting, Richards feels confident that progress was made. "In spite of the emotional climate, wisdom prevailed," she said.

"I agreed with the decision to delay the vote," Meccia said. "We want to get the bylaw right before it's passed. If the Planning Board is willing to work with us, we can work this out by next May."

The three main items Meccia believes should be included in the new zoning bylaw would be the ability for home businesses to keep their vehicles on their properties, to set up a system for the businesses to police themselves when it comes to following the rules and "to keep what's there there."

"If something changes at a business it gets larger, needs a new vehicle, hires a new employee then they should have to apply for a special permit," Meccia stated.

"The small businesses of East Longmeadow donate a lot of their time and money to this town," he added, "and now we're looking for the town to help us."

For the decisions on all 16 warrant articles visit www.thereminder.com.


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