Zoning board approves 56-unit luxury apartment building

The Zoning Board of Appeals approved a 56-unit luxury apartment building, to be built at 806 to 808 State Road at a meeting on Thursday, Jan. 8. The developer’s representative, John Markey, wrote a draft decision for the board to read over and possibly approve. 

The apartments would be located on a 270,530 square foot lot across from the Harley-Davidson on State Road, and use town water and sewage. The apartment building would be four stories tall, with a walk-out basement acting as the first floor. 

Some concerns raised were that rock-blasting  would be needed to make the property developable, the height of the building was  above zoning regulations, traffic patterns being negatively affected and noise from trash pickups affecting neighboring houses. 

Markey argued  that there will be less traffic coming from the apartments than would be generated by a store. He said one benefit could be that more people would be shopping at local businesses.

The zoning board approved the project with four conditions; that the developer acquire all necessary permits from other boards, get a site plan review by the Planning Board, that if applicable, they get approval from the Conservation Commission and that trash removal only happen between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. 

The zoning board  approved the variance to build apartments in a business district and have a building be 45 feet tall rather than the approved 35 feet. The elevator shaft would make the building 45 feet tall, although the building itself would only be 31 feet tall. They also approved a special permit to have over 2,500 of the lot square feet covered.