Vote on Briggs development are pushed to next month

Feb 22, 2019

MARION — Sherman and Arnold Briggs have been waiting three years to get a housing development in Marion approved. On Thursday, the Zoning Board of Appeals told them to wait a little longer.

After hearing a presentation by a representative for Briggs at the Feb. 21 meeting, the zoning board continued the hearing to next month, when additional members will be present to vote.

The Briggs development is seeking to building a 27-unit housing complex near Baldwin Brothers, the Brew Fish, and Sippican Healthcare.

The site at 0 Spring Street is in a Residential E district, with required 20-feet setbacks. As currently designed, 14 of the proposed units do not meet that setback requirement.

At fall Town Meeting, Sherman Briggs tried to change the setback requirement in a Residential E district to 10 feet, but the effort was rejected by voters.

The residences are designed to each have a single-car garage and a master bedroom on the first floor. The developer’s representative explained that the Briggs development also staggered the houses, so “people really feel like they have their own home. It fits with the flavor of the Village.”

Planning Board Chairman Will Saltonstall attended the meeting to explain some of the history behind the project, and to express the Planning Board’s support for the Briggs development. He explained that if the Zoning Board approves the project, it will still go through a more comprehensive review with the Planning Board.

Saltonstall reminded Zoning Board members that the Master Plan supports higher-density, market-rate housing at the end of Spring Street. He also said that his board and the Briggs development can negotiate density and setbacks specifics in the planning process.

Only one abutter showed up to comment: Greg Messina, who represented Sippican Healthcare.

“Noise and our general business operations,” he said, referring to the workers who must come and go at all hours for night shifts, “mean that we value the setback.” He clarified that Sippican Healthcare does try to keep noisy deliveries to daylight hours. 

Because of the density of the development, the developers are also required to provide ten percent of the development as affordable housing. He has chosen to construct the required three units of affordable housing on a lot adjacent to the larger development.

His representative also presented those units to the Zoning Board of Appeals, as they do not meet side setback requirements. That hearing was also continued to March 7.