Great. I would call to order this meeting of the town South Planning Board. Today is Tuesday, October 7th, 2025, 7 p.m. We are meeting here in person at the South Town Hall, 454 College Highway. We are also open for participation via Zoom. We'll do a quick
uh roll call with people present. Uh good evening. Town Planner, Alvin Allen. Thank you. Jessica Thornton, chair. Dave Spina, vice chair. Brenald, member,
Marcus Phelps, member, associated, and online, Diane Jazba, member. Thank you. Report me. Okay. For the town finance report, just have a couple items. Uh, for the next
meeting, uh, we may have another item. Uh, 282 Granville Road. They're looking for a small solar array, uh, ground mounted. So that may come up on our next uh agenda which should be October 21st. Uh the second matter is I I I apologize.
I can't recall the address, but it's a senior living complex. Sounds like multiple structures. Um it's owned by Wayfinders or or at least they they are the property manager. Um if not both, but they're essentially
seeking to install a bunch of pavement, but it's all in the rear. um for connectivity of their lots. So, I guess for every rear egress, they're going to have pavement, but it's not something that comes up to the the
public way. So, it's not something that um changes. I don't think it necessarily has to come before planning board because it doesn't change their their their site plan at all other than just, you know, uh pavement and it's not something that uh DPW gets involved with because again, it's not coming up to the
public way. So, I just wanted to make mention of the um that may come up in the town that the distingu living complex. Are there any public comments for the board on anything not listed on the
agenda earlier on this evening? Hearing none, we will skip ahead here on our agenda before our first public hearing time. Jesse Jesse Silver.
Uh, so I continue to meet with Alvin and um John and Rich. So the um what we have we've installed the drainage on the west
side of uh the crossing and um we formed up another 100 ft of sidewalk that we'll be pouring this week and um we're going to finish loming the back side of that sidewalk and and seat it so
we can get the final that's the final u edge of that water quality basin of water quality basin number three. Um and then we're going to finish graveling the that
section of roadway and get it ready for pavement. So when we pave the entrance way, we'll pave that as well. Um and then uh next week we have um allied testing scheduled for our three
core samples in the first 900 ft of roadway. And so I Rich and John know about that. So if they want to witness it or whatnot, but I'll provide the report once that's completed.
So but they have the exact date for next week. He didn't give me a date. They just have it on the calendar for next week, but I'll I I can text challenge you. Yeah. Yeah. Also, just wanted to update that I did
receive um your title certificate which I sent off to the state along with the conservation description language and they did acknowledge receipt. Okay. So once that's once they review it then
that can get circulated for signatures. Yes. Okay. Any board member questions? Okay. Thank you very much. And then I'll come to the next meeting whenever that Okay. All right. Sounds
good. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next on the agenda, we have a new public hearing. Read the notice to the record for Tuesday, October 7th, 7:05 p.m. Notice is hereby given in accordance
with provisions of master law, chapter 4A, section 11, and the town of Southic bylaws that the planning board will hold a hybrid public hearing via Zoom and in the town hall at 454 College Highway Southwick on an application by FA Sperico for a special permit and site plan approval to establish a yoga studio
at property located at 55 Hudson Drive in the industrial restricted zone. The property is shown on current assessor's map 049 parcel 003. The applicant proposes to establish a yoga studio at the subject property in accordance with the code of south zoning bylaws checking
185 sections 910 19 and 30. Zoom meeting information is provided. A copy of the application materials may be inspected by contacting the town planner Aan Allen at his phone or email. Any person interested or wishing to be heard on the matter should appear at the time and
manner designated justice Thornton chairperson. After we put notice of this public hearing, we received a letter from the applicant indicating that this location isn't
right for her plans and she's looking to withdraw the application. So, do I hear a motion to close? Dina salute. Do I hear a second? Second. Roll call vote. Jessica Borton. I D.
I Marcus Phelps. Yes. Diane Ja. Yes. Do I hear a motion to accept the applicant's withdrawal? So move. Madam Chair. Yes, sir. Should we do it without prejudice just in case?
Sure. Do I hear a motion to accept the applicant's withdrawal without prejudice? Denis move. Second. Okay. Roll call vote. Jessica Thornton. I Dina. Jason. Marcus Phelps. Yes. And just by
all right. Back at a time in pass. Did everybody have a chance to review the meeting minutes? Yes. No. Yes. I'm sure you are
accurate. If you would like more time to review them, I can wait. I do a motion to approve the meeting minutes of July 26. Dave has a move. If second call just I
Marcus Phelps, yes. I Ja I Ian also hi. Thank you. All right. Do I hear a motion to approve the meeting minutes for August 12th, 2025? Dave Spina. So move. You can't. Why not? We weren't there. But I just listen to it on
Does that work? Well, I have to add your signature back to it. Okay. Well, if that's what he thinks I can All right. Why don't we do that? For the convenience, I'll abstain. Okay, there you go. Do I hear a second?
Diane second. Oh, Diane second. I'll take Dian. All right. Roll vote. Jessica Thornton. I Dain. Thank you. Jason will die. Marcus Phelps. Yes. D I
also have I We're already up to September, folks. Look at that. Excellent. moving right along. So very close. Did we have any late sub anrs? No, we did not.
All right. Well, my phone says 710. Oh, that's How about you? Not yet. The computer says 79. Oh, just wait patiently until 710. It says 709.
Got to be seconds left. [Music] Well, what we're going to be opening shortly is the public hearing. Oh, we're 157 feeding roads tea house. Mr. Planner. Yes. So, I received an email from Mr.
Steve Salvini just uh requesting an extension of their petition until the uh next meeting which should be uh October 21st. And I still have not received any additional information uh that we requesting to go to ADA accessibility.
Not sure if we got the fire chief what he was looking for regards to fire protection. Um so there's reason for the continuence request. Yes. All right. Then um do we have anything else on that future agenda other than
that one that you emailed out for? No, just one. So that'll be at 7:05. So do I hear a motion to continue this hearing to 7:10 p.m. on October 21st? Dave Spina moved. Yes. Second. I will note that Diane Jes will not be
voting as a yes. Uh roll call vote. Jessica Thor and I. Dave I will. Marcus Phelps. Yes. Do I stop? Yes. Thank you. Off to the time. Next on the agenda is 59 Shirt Avenue
Farm Water Management Minor Site Plan Modification Request. Mr. Hail. Yes. Good afternoon, board. How are you this evening? Great. Good. So, do you have for us um an email that you
submitted um to Mr. Allen and Mr. Goddard approximately an hour and 30 minutes ago, neither have had the opportunity to review these um answers to questions that were submitted back in July,
right? Uh so I am going to allow my town planner and my assistant DPW director time to review these before we as a board will take action on it. Okay. Very good. All right. I will see you at the next meeting. Thank you.
Thank you. We are going to move on to 76 Tannery Road site plan approval for a small scale ground mounted photo voltaic system. Mr. Decker, is that you? How?
Hello. Good evening. How are you? Introduce yourself for the record. My name is Rob Decker. uh from Sunun. Yeah, I see that we were in receipt of a
handwritten letter from the Southerntherly Abarp at 76 or 74 Tanner Road, excuse me. And then we received the same site plan
with no changes except for the removal of the fencing around the unit. Is that correct? No. No. The location moved uh quite considerably. Uh it's um the I can bring up the last one we had. Um hold on.
But this one here 73.2 2 feet in the left on the left corner and then 65 feet in the right from the property line and it's 150 from the house. That's not what we have in front of us. So, give us a moment to try to get that.
Okay. Do you need me to share that with you or Yes, please. Because what I have here, it it shows the uh the array closer to the uh the southern property only 20 ft away. Yeah,
I don't have screen sharing. Should be able to host disabled attendee screen sharing. It says one second. Oh, she's so helpful. She's good.
Do you have I've got just views just a panel view of all of us. I can print the page and uh off my screen here and hold it up too. Hold on.
I kind of request to host request. Okay. I don't know if you can see. Hey Rob, if if you move your cursor around on your screen, you see the share
button. When you click it, it doesn't give you an option to send the request to share to us. No, it says host has disabled this uh screen sharing. All right. Well, let's see what we can see. Or if you can email it, you can email it to me.
We're going to need it. sure guys email on there. No, what's the email address? I can send it right now. A Allen AA len south ma.gov.
southwake ma.gov set up with different settings. One second. Right. Should I get it momentarily? Sorry about that. I Excuse me, Mr. Mr. Decker. How large is the
file? It's not too big. Let me see. I'm trying to see if if I could add it here. Can I upload it to the to the do uh government uh to the town uh platform there? Um
if you could send it directly to me would be we would be Yeah, I sent it there. I don't know why it's not going. Let me just go over the email one more time. Hold on one second. Uh, got Allan Southwick. Hold on. I might have got it
wrong. Allan Southwick ma.com. Should be a Hold on. Yeah. Go again. A A That's two A's. Okay. Enough
southwick.gov. I think it's got so a double L, right? That's correct. At Southwick. You got the N.
Yeah. Allan at Southwick. Yep. Southwick ma.gov. ma.gov. Okay, sorry about that. did it. Uh, hold on. There's another link here to email you directly. Let me try to do that. Maybe somehow I got it
wrong, but All right. Okay. This came through. No. There we go. Um, what's the message? Um, all right. This time I went through your website. Oh, you got it there. Okay.
Okay. We're up and running. So, yeah. So, we've adjusted from 25 to 20 feet of distance to 65 to 73.
Correct. Correct. And it's behind the shed over there and the the pool area. I think it's pretty well isolated. Okay. I appreciate that movement. I was uh a little weirded out by the fact that
it hadn't moved at all in the application. Yeah, sorry about that. U maybe what happened. And then I So, but I see that you removed the fencing. Yeah. Um they didn't think it was necessary. It's be behind the building and behind
the pool area. If it's something that, you know, is necessary, you know, it just didn't seem like it was the right fit for it, you know, for the area. Yeah, board members viewing this application
have any questions? I think removing the fencing is okay because you can see where Tannery Road is and this is perpendicular. So, you're only going to see
the end portion, I guess, of the array. my opinion. I guess my primary concern was it being right on the property line, but it's it's not there before and and I like that it is tucked behind there. So, especially with that considering the letter from the neighbors from
Mr. Spina. Yeah. And um I don't know if I would be as fine if the abuing properties backyard wasn't so far back from the home in this case. you know, the it's the far reaches to the
back of it's not up against it. Um, and it's being hidden by other structures. I think if I was a homeowner, I would want something, you know, bushes or something, but I'm not going to insist upon it if members are okay with it as is. Miss Joseph,
I I agree. I I was thinking the same things uh along the same line that I would want something put there, but if I I mean if they're not concerned about it and it is like put further back like
you're indicating, I I think it would be okay. But um I agree. I think that something hiding it would be much better. But that's just my opinion. if there, you know, we I can put a um if we
put hedges on that um south side of the array, but you know, it's gonna it'll start to impact the shading of it. You know what I mean? So, just, you know, they might put some plants or something in front of it, I would assume. You know, being near the pool and such, you know. Yeah.
Who wants splash water on their solar panels? I don't know. Um I'm assuming he'll make sure that's safe. And uh all right. Are there any questions the other end of the table? Good. Need
any members of the public input on this? Right. It's just a site plan discussion. We have to endorse it. Right. Yes. Madam Chairman, if I could. Yes.
Uh Richard Stfano, fire chief. Yes, Mr. Chief. Um, regarding the fencing, and again, I don't have the regulations in front of me. I apologize. I'm calling from home this evening, but um, ground arrays, there are some requirements in some
situations that fencing is required. So, before we give the approval of this, uh, I'd like to have the opportunity to just review this one more time with our fire prevention officer. Absolutely. Sir, what we've done typically in the past uh what we do to
protect uh you know people from getting into the wires is we put a uh a vinyl mesh over underneath the array to protect uh any intruders or any other uh critters from wanting to get in into the array.
Would that be sufficient? Well, I have to look at the regulations. Um, so again, we're relatively new to to residential and even the commercial ground mount systems, so we just need to verify that it's within the state regulations.
So, um, do you have to issue another permit uh for the uh for the array separate from this uh proceeding here? Well, my concern is if they if they say you don't do have need a fence and then we come back and say you need a fence,
we're kind of right back to where we started. So, right because you know uh if you if they pass us here today uh with the stipulation if you find that it's required uh can we uh go can we proceed,
you know, if if you require a fence and we put one around it. And again, I'm going to apologize. It's the first time I'm seeing this project um with with without the fence. Gotcha. Um so we saw it a while ago with the fence and now the fence is being taken
out. So I would prefer I would prefer that the fence be approved by planning where it lies because ours isn't about where it goes. Ours is about whether it goes. Okay. So that's my concern right now. And I'd
ra again I'd rather just take it probably be faster and quicker to wait the two weeks for us to look this up to have another hearing in two weeks the next meeting versus it gets approved then there's a problem and a longer delay. So all right so you'll let us know in
between. Absolutely. Okay. We can put that on the plan set and you can see where it's go and we can get you know if if that's the case we can get the type of fencing that the owner wants to install. Right. Very good. All right. Thank you for that. All right.
Thank you, Chief, for speaking up. Sorry, I did not notice you there online. Um, so Mr. Decker, we will get these updated plan sets over to the chief and for fire review and we will see you back here on the 21st. Excellent. Thank you so much. Have a
good evening. You as well. Thank you. Right. Next agenda have 497 College Highway Duns and Donuts minor site plan modification review. Hello.
[Music] Uh well, I'm just going to sit here. Do you want I could do stand whatever you said. Did you pull it up? Yeah, I get it on screen. Yep. Get it on current name. Yep. Uh Philippe Cravec Associates here
tonight representing the applicant J uh I think it's the uh yeah JNN SEMA Family Limited Partnership. Uh co Mr. Peter Martins uh for the minor um site improvements over at 497 College
Highway. Uh I believe everyone on the board is familiar with the Dunkin Donuts location. It's right here at uh near the corner. Um South Again, that one right there off College Highway. Essentially, uh, what is happening, they they're
going to reconfigure the drive-thru lane. The two the the curb cuts along College Highway are going to stay the same as they currently are. They're going to repave the existing parking lot and reconfigure the drive-thru. So, rather than the drive-thru being right
up against the building, um, you know, that the second curb cut over, um, they're going to push the drive-thru over there to create a longer queue. Um, you know, Dunkin Donuts is um are all about how many cars they can stack so that they're not impeding the traffic
flow through the parking lot. Well, that that double entrance into the drive-thru was just asking for right when it was first put in. So, it So, um the menu board will move farther down the the the line onto a new
landscaped island um that's shown on the plan. Um, essentially the parking out front is going to stay exactly the same. It's just going to be restriped. Um, you know, some additional parking along the back and the dumpster is going to be uh
relocated um off the straight ahead through the drive aisle um as shown on the plan. So, uh the building is going to stay exactly the same. The ADA parking spaces are going to stay in the same location. And it's really um landscaping improvements along College
Highway and the menu board island, let's call it, um along the rear of the parcel there. Um there is some there is another process that we have to go through concurrently, uh an amendment to the special permit for the site lighting. Uh
the way the permit was written back when this was originally approved in 93 was that no new lighting was to be added to the site. So, we have to amend that special permit to get the uh proposed light poles um approved. So,
where are those? Um so, there is um there's uh I believe four in a couple wall packs um on the building. So, there's going to be one right out um in the island adjacent to College Highway. Uh one along the
property line to the east. uh one to the north and then one near the menu board. Um and these are going to be the you know I think back probably in 93 they still had the those flood light you know
models that would just you know cast light everywhere. Now we have the you know concentrated LED um that are you know that that don't uh spread the light into areas that you don't want. Um so um
that's through the amend special permit amendment process but um tonight is for the site plan the minor site plan amendments. I just had a question um and I tried to ask Nina but um is there any change in in the parking
number of parking spaces? Yes. So I believe the um so there's a parking calc uh shown on the top right hand corner of the plan. Um generally I believe this
layout has three additional spaces from what the previous layout had. Um but in general the layout for the most part is going to be identical to what it is you know out front in front of the the
building the parking lot. um the parking parallel parking in between the two drive aisles along the property line. It's these uh few spaces along the back that you know may or may not be utilized but there will be some spaces delineated across the back.
Okay. And would you happen to have the capacity of the structure because I know South's um uh their parking calculations based off of percentage of the capacity of the structure as well as peak um
employee uh how many employees at at any peak time. Yep. Um so 22 seating capacity of the building um which is uh it's all kind of gives you the rundown here. So 22 capacity. So you know you 40% of maximum
maximum occupancy um gives you an 8.8. We used just 10 for the round number. Maximum employees of eight. So that would be 18 for this specific use. Um the the generally this row along the
east is is utilized by the adjacent building. So, we included a ret uh calculation for some retail space associated with the building that doesn't have on-site parking right adjacent to it. Um, so even with that
required parking for that building, um, gives you a parking of 25 required 25 and we have 38 shown on the Thank you. I use those parking spaces for non Dunkin Donuts.
Yeah, I had some issues on parking. Yeah. Um I thought it Well, go ahead. I'll get to it. But parking is fascinating. Um in general, I appreciate all the
changes. I think this somebody who's utilized this drive-thru and this parking lot, um that's it's always a little ugly coming in and out of there. Um, so I I believe the improvements to be a positive one.
Let me just say for the record that I was really shocked that it was believe in our Lebec Associates coming before me for a site plan modification with the notice that the work was going to begin on Facebook a week and a half ago and the dirt is already done up.
I saw that on the way here. So, not only do we have site plan work happening just on its own, but also I would assume that all the light pole work is going to be done simultaneously even though the special permitting hearing for that isn't opening until the 21st.
Yeah. So, again, I um I like the change in plans. However, I was really shocked that such a professional organization like Arloth Associates would It's not us going on.
It's not we don't not responsible. Pass the message up. I have to echo that. I was a little upset to see that we are just now seeing these plans and it's already begun. Yeah. Um, so yeah,
it it will be fun to have a public hearing on a light pole that's already up and in use. So, well, they might not have it turned up. We might not have it, I'm sure. All right. Um, with that, any
other board member questions or comments on this plan? Will there be signage added to make sure everybody realizes that the way you get into the drive-thru is now that first entrance or what is that? The northmost entrance here, right? Cuz right, you can't get there
from here, right? If the if these bases are full, yes, believe it. Well, um let me see here. It doesn't look like there's a sign on the plan, but we can certainly add that to the plan. Yeah, it
would be nice to make it clear that the drive is the drive of traffic to that. Yep. There is realize in the middle that they can't the sign that they changed the face on. It says Duncan drivethru, but like you say, it'd be nice to have
one at Island where the drive-thru is, right? I don't know if Duncan has preapproved sign language that they have for these sorts of situations, right? You know, yeah, it's probably dictated by the franchise,
you know, indoor parking. Yeah. How you would do that, but I would Yeah. Okay. Certainly signage [Music] uh disregarding light. I think it's
great. I think addressing the traffic is something we should it's an opportunity that we should take advantage of. Thanks. Couple things on the parking. Uh I'll go with the 25 which you're saying
accommodates the occupancy and the employees. So we can allow up to 125% of 25 which is 32 and you're proposing 38 spaces. But then you also mentioned you're sharing those
spaces on I call it the north side of the property with this y uh printing company or whatever it is. So that explains why there's a handicap parking space right there as you pull in. Right. Yeah.
Because that's not for the Dunkin Donuts or Duncan. It's for this other building. apparently because I was looking. No, that anticath is like Yeah, it's way far way over there all by itself. It It should be closer to the Duncan building.
Is that already there? Uh I'm not I don't know if it's striped that way, but we're adding it as a an ADA space to the to the adjacent building. What's interesting if you look at the
original special permit for this it reads 497 and 503 college highway and yeah so it has both addresses and the original department I think there was one parcel that so the shared parking is reasonable
historical too okay because I was looking 38 I mean that building Duncan I don't know that there's that many people can you know need all those parking spaces just us in our big trucks and the in the landscaping trailers that take up two
spaces when they pull in. So, the only other item I had with the the plantings uh or concern with the plantings is uh sight distance. Are those plantings going to interfere with people who are
coming out onto College Highway? I don't know how high those, you know, they're just little shrubs. And yeah, they're shrubs. They're not they're not trees. They're like three foot high or Yeah, they're junip junipers. Juniper or zontalis.
Um they're shrubs. They're they're slow growing shrubs. Um I don't you know what I mean? Pulling out. the ones around the sign maybe not so much of a concern as the that row of proposed pre-cast curb planter
yeah they'll be trimmed they'll be landscaped to to stay low below and I I don't know if there's any way maybe there's no way to like move it back into the property slightly uh I know you have to have a certain
aisle width there yeah I think for for your uh two-way traffic, but the the sight distance would be a concern for me. So, a lot of traffic. Sure. Polish highway and when people are
getting in and out of there. Yeah. No, they're they're shrubs. They're not tall plantings. They're they'll be below the the sight line because it reads pre-cast. Is that the curve? Okay.
pointer. I have another question. You good? Yep. All right. Go ahead, Diane. Is the work going to stop until this is approved? I do not believe that after discussion
at town hall that there was a mechanism to do that at this time. Okay. Unfortunately. Okay. Um, any other board member questions?
Yeah. One last one, I think. Um, what is the position of that the planter? I guess that's the southerntherly planter relative to the sidewalk. Is it it's between the sidewalk and the the drive aisle. And the drive. This one here. Yeah. Yeah. So, sidewalk, planter, drive
aisle. And it's the better different. It's like it doesn't I'm trying to interpret that sidewalk or if it's on the sidewalk or Yeah. But it's being Yes. Y
I know the other question I had the parking spaces are they all uh the 10 by 20 10 by 20s. They all are. Yes. Y I picked that. Yeah. But the largest parking spaces around
a lot of the Yeah. Excellent. Yeah. Makes your dog such a kid all the time. All right. Um, it is nice with larger parking spaces. I can pull into anything else, Mr. Planner, on this
application. Nothing else. Comments are includes a traffic flow, makes it more pedestrian friendly. We no longer have people walking through lanes of drive-thru. Uh, personally I'm in favor. Okay.
All right. Do I hear a positive recommendation for the minor site plan modifications as proposed with the addition of signage to be added to indicate the proper drive-through length? Dave Spina. So moved.
J second. Roll call vote. Jessica Thornton. I I. Marcus Phelps. Yes, Diane Jaspay. With that, I'm assuming we'll see you
back here in two weeks. A couple weeks to see you. I know. Well, it's the first time since the chair. Yeah. Thank you for coming. All right. Thank you for being
with that, Mr. Chair. We do not have any late submitt anrs to review. Correct. I already asked that, but what did I call you? Oh, yeah. All right. Do we have any planning board
or staff member comments? I believe you and Mr. Allen received an email from Mr. Chver. Enic. Did we? I I believe so. Yes. Okay. Requesting that we
uh lay out our plan for completion of action items from the master plan. Um see I think he's looking for master plan implementation committee is looking for responses back from the various
committees and boards by November 14th. Okay. The idea is to you know lay out at least it doesn't say in the email but I believe we were looking for at least like three years or so we recognize that there's you know further than that may be difficult but
the uh yeah just basically what do we plan to accomplish first three years or so and then that will become the basis for the metric by which will be stored with the amic reports numbers All
right. Then uh once you and I meet and discuss those and perhaps we will bring that to the next meeting. Yes. For the rest of the board members to review and give your thumbs up before we submit it over to Mr. Chver. So let him
know that's going to take a couple weeks. We will get that done. Fantastic. Anything else from Empic? We're doing the same activity with the rest of the boards. Gave various responses. So, interesting responses. Yes.
Um, and just a point of clarification, there was a member from the school committee. Yes. On master plan, Mr. Chard. Yes. Students also high school students. Yes. A lot of that aspirational. I think
they need to remind that sometimes that it's also it's aspirational planning to 2040. You know, don't everybody doesn't need to feel like they needs to get it done tomorrow. But you tried to spell. All right. Any other
I had a question. There was a solar array proposed on sheep pasture road. Yes. They they withdrew their uh well they didn't put in the formal application but they u uh essentially withdrew their item uh stated that they would put the solar on the roof of their
home. Okay. I know we had discussion and they were going to put in some stakes to show us where it would be located. Yeah. Okay. Of course. Perfect. Much nicer solution. All right. Then I
don't have anything else. Do you have anything else? Sure. All right. Then do I hear a motion to close meeting? Dave Spina moved. J second. All in favor say I. I. I. Good night everybody.
Feel better. Thank you.