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Date: 10/24/2018
EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow Planning Board met on Oct. 16 with a full agenda ranging from site plan waiver requests, sign permits and the continuation of three public hearings. Two of the public hearings, however, are plans for new construction in town.
Applicant Ventry Properties, LLC of 73 Chestnut St. in Springfield brought forth a plan to combine two pieces of property, located at 124 Shaker Rd., for the purpose of constructing a 3,800 square foot single–story professional office building on the land. VCA Shaker Road Animal Hospital, Shaker Road and Bond Avenue abut the property. Additionally, across the street from the 124 Shaker Rd. site sits Massachusetts Taekwondo Academy, East Longmeadow Discount Oil, Connecticut Valley Artesian Well, and the space that houses Caio Bella Salon, At Any Length and The Pizza Shoppe.
Planning Board Chairman George Kingston stated that the property has the frontage requirement and that he saw no reason not to endorse the ANR plan. The board unanimously endorsed the plan.
The Public Hearing was then opened and the applicant shared that the building would be toward the corner of Shaker Road and Bond Avenue. The building will be divided into two spaces; one space will be 1,500 square feet and will consist of the relocation of the applicants law and real estate businesses. The second space will be a rental property for another professional office. The parking will be located in the rear, and has 19 parking spaces in accordance with the town’s requirements. The applicant reassured the Board that there would be no traffic going on to Shaker Road, as both the entrance and exit will be on Bond Avenue. The lighting plan submitted displayed that the light poles will not cascade lighting onto any adjacent properties. The entirety of the building will be brick, there will be covered entrances, the windows and doors will have white aluminum surrounding them and the gutters will be brown.
After discussions back and forth between the board regarding how many square feet the new building would be allowed to take up on the property in accordance with the bylaws, Kingston stated that he believed that the building shall not exceed 25 percent of the entire lot, and that the applicant is well within that.
In the property’s current drainage system the water travels down Bond Avenue to the town’s drainage system. Donald Frydryk of Sherman and Frydryk, LLC. explained that they’ve designed a system that doesn’t allow drainage to go into those systems. The flow off of the building will go into a yard drain, which goes to a water quality unit in the middle of the parking lot, and then there is underground infiltration. Frydryk told the board all drainage will be handled underground, and stated that the Department of Public Works (DPW) reviewed the plan and stated it was to their liking.
The businesses anticipated hours of operation would be roughly 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., no later than 7 p.m. The parking lot would have restricted parking for only the people who are visiting his offices.
The Planning Board unanimously approved the site plan subject to a minor administrative change.
As for the second public hearing and proposed new building, the location is at 604 North Main St., Andrew Bonavita has had a dental practice in Longmeadow for 28 years at 123 Dwight Rd., and he’s looking to relocate his practice to East Longmeadow.
The site at 604 North Main St. previously had a building on it, however it was demolished two years ago with the intent to rebuild. The rebuild did not occur, and now Bonavita proposes a 3,400 square foot one–story professional office building. Similar to the previously discussed project, half of this building will be space for Bonavita’s dental practice and the other half will be open to a legal or medical practice.
There will not be any exterior lighting other than lighting mounted on the building which will be low wattage, LED down light fixtures. There will be an entrance for appearance purposes on the front of the building, however they predict most people will enter from the back of the building. The new construction will be “traditionally styled.”
The building site has two proposed leeching catch basins and a dry well to handle drainage. The DPW has not fully approved the plan yet, however, and Kingston commented that the Board could not sign off on the project until the DPW’s concerns were addressed.
The public hearing was continued to Oct. 30 at 6 p.m. to resolve the DPW concerns.