Paid Advertisement

ZBA Incompetence

To Advertise Call 781-585-0037

May 15th 2008

Conspiracy and Chaos Caught on Tape
ZBA Incompetence

by Dan Sapir
(July 16, 2004) There is a board in town that is so powerful that it can change the face of Kingston for decades to come. It is a board made up of five members and two alternates. They don’t get paid and they are not elected. The destiny of our Town is currently in their hands. For that reason we should be very worried.

The Zoning Board of Appeals is one of those obscure groups that you may come face-to-face with once in your life. But when you do, it can stop you from building that addition you had your heart set on. Worse, if you already built it, they can make you tear it down.

Chapter 40-B, or the Snob Zoning Law better known as the Affordable Housing Regulations requires that all towns in the Commonwealth maintaining at least a 10% affordable housing stock. We are only at 3.8%. Developers can now present giant housing plans exempt from most town regulations as long as they include 25% of the units as “affordable”. There is only one board that hears these proposals. This board serves in a capacity to represent all boards in town. They are the ZBA. They are currently hearing two 40-B proposals that could add about 800 new homes in Kingston. They are also determining if they should overturn the Planning Board’s decision to deny the L. Knife expansion off Bradford Avenue.

The board consists of political appointees all named by the Selectmen, most of them originally named a year ago by a far different board then you see today.

The Observer has gone through considerable trouble to show you an inter-office memo put together by the ZBA Secretary. Patty Monroe is a lovely woman. What she isn’t is a member of the ZBA. The memo makes three key blunders:

1. It presumes to try and work around the Selectmen’s decision to open up an existing vacancy on that board to any interested persons. Monroe pushes her board to promote their alternate.

2. Monroe points out that she has been questioned by the Town Clerk relative to a rumor that the board gathers after each meeting at a local restaurant. The rumor is verified as truth in the memo and she suggests they knock off the practice “for the time being.”

3. By far the most deadly matter discussed is that ex-member Stan Kuzborski wants the board to be aware of an issue pertaining to a hearing currently before them. Stan should not be influencing the board now that he is gone, Monroe should not be a party or liaison, and in no instance should all this be done “after the public has left the meeting…”

Had the ZBA thanked Patty and reminded her that she was exceeding her authority, the matter would have been over. But we were curious. What would happen after “the public left the meeting”? The Observer hired a PAC-TV Cameraman and requested that the tape continue to roll after every member of the public physically left the meeting room. What followed was distressing and far worse then anything Monroe presented in her ill-advised letter:

1. The board acknowledged they approved an applicant request without the required number of votes. They pondered how the decision would be reversed if anyone appealed it. To deliberately create a cause of action, knowing you are breaking the law, is gross incompetence.

2. Chaos ensued, complete with shouting and swearing over the board’s attempts to unseat Mauro Mazzilli as Vice-Chairman. The motion was made by Janet Butler, an alternate ZBA member with no authority to be engaged in policy matters.

3. The board replaced Mainstream Engineering as the Town’s peer engineering company assigned to the 157-unit Fountain Knoll 40-B project. They instead voted to hire Coler & Colantonio. Sources say the firm would be unable to accept the assignment because they have already partnered with Delphic Associates, the developer for the Kingston project. Allegedly C & C and Delphic worked a Duxbury 40-B recently. In any case, Butler’s involvement in this as an alternate will wipe out the action.

4. The board voted to correspond with the Selectmen to recommend that Janet Butler be their choice for full membership. The action was already signaled in the Monroe memo, which was beginning to look like a meeting agenda. We did note that the board did not retire to Paisano’s after adjournment.

Several issues must be addressed. First, it is becoming clear that the Zoning Board has a limited understanding of the law and their own function. A classic example was when the board was asked during the L. Knife appeal hearing if they had a copy of the Planning Board denial. It was, after all, the denial that was now before the ZBA. Not one member had a copy of the very foundation of what caused them to gather that evening. There is still a question of whether the ZBA is empowered to reverse a Planning Board decision. That matter is currently before Town Council.

Follow this issue on line and on the Message Boards.

Join Discussion: Fixing A Broken ZBA
 

Paid Advertisement