Zoning Board approves nine townhouses

The Dartmouth Zoning Board has approved nine townhouses to be built at 200 Cross Road. 

Each unit will have two bedrooms and a two-car garage. 

The development needed a number of variances for spacing from the buildings and parking from the road. The roads for the development will be wider than what is required for fire safety, which required its own variance. 

The property is in the general business district, which attorney Chris Saunders pointed out would cause more noise and traffic than a residential dwelling. The Zoning Board agreed with this point. 

Massachusetts General Law 40A, which outlines when Zoning Boards should approve variance requests, was changed in September to be more allowing. It now considers “practical difficulty:” which includes soil conditions and topography, as well as land structures; whether the difficulty is self imposed; if strict enforcement of the zoning bylaws would create financial hardship; and whether the benefit could be done in some other way. 

During their time in Zoning, Saunders and the petitioner Peter Cruz proved that all points of the updated 40A law applied. The land has wetlands and is steep, forcing them to move the developments closer to the road than is allowed in the zoning bylaws. They already lowered the amount of townhouses from 10, and Saunders stated it would not be financially feasible to do less. 

He also pointed out that strict enforcement of the Zoning bylaws would allow a business to move into the area, and not allow housing on the property. 

Residents raised concerns about the drainage in the area, such as Lee Hall who pointed out that rain and snow from the school drains onto the property. However, acting Zoning Board chair Halim Choubah pointed out that they will have to adhere to state stormwater regulations that state no more water can drain from the property than before development. 

Cruz added that there will be two catch basins to treat stormwater and drain it into the wetlands, which was discussed with Department of Public Works chair Tim Barber.

The Zoning Board imposed their standard conditions, such as securing approvals and permits from the correct boards.