Amazon.com officials were disappointed to find their delivery service proposal for Beacham Street continued once again when an attorney for abutters to the project alleged that some neighbors within the abutter boundary hadn’t been statutorily notified of hearings.
Planning Board members were seemingly about to approve the project when Attorney Thomas Orr appeared for several members of the Island End Neighborhood Organization. He asked the Board to suspend the hearing for a number of reasons.
“I respectfully request the Planning Board suspend this hearing until such time as Amazon meets with it neighbors and addresses their concerns about traffic,” he said. “The petitioner’s traffic assessment is inadequate because it is outdated…The former occupant of the building, US Foods, operated by only having a handful of large truck trips early in the day. They didn’t make several truck trips with smaller vehicles like this plan.”
However, it was a potential technicality concerning notifying abutters of the project and its hearings that snagged the effort.
Orr contended that several abutters weren’t notified due to the fact that measurements were done incorrectly. Instead of measuring 300 feet from the property line for notification, the measurement was done from the center of the property. This excluded at least one abutter, Wine Grapes, and maybe more.
“Many of the neighboring businesses and owners only recently learned of the project because they weren’t notified,” he said.
Planning Director Tony Sousa noted that the list and measurements are done by the Assessor’s Office and he wanted to look into the allegation.
“I would like to verify that and if an abutter was not notified, when we’d have to do that and go through the process again,” he said. “In light of the questions on the abutters and info submitted, I do think it would be appropriate to continue this to our next meeting.”
The Board voted 4-0 to continue.
The next meeting will be Tuesday, Oct. 13.