Pepperell Boards Rush to Fix Flawed OSRD Permit Before Monday Deadline

PEPPERELL — March 3, 2016 — Pepperell boards scrambled Thursday to salvage a flawed open space residential development permit before a Monday legal deadline. At a special joint session of the Board of Selectmen and Planning Board, Town Counsel told members that Special Permit 2015-04 — issued February 16 for a Hollis Street parcel owned by developer Al Patnaude — was defective because the Planning Board had authorized four density bonus lots when the zoning bylaw's "in the aggregate" cap of 20 percent of the nine-lot concept plan permitted only one. Town Counsel also flagged an apparent unauthorized dimensional reduction in required frontage for Lot 6, relief he said only the Board of Appeals can grant. Applicant's attorney Elizabeth Ahern of Iliopoulos Law in Chelmsford argued the board acted within its Section 7170 waiver authority and offered to supply supporting case law. The group settled on a two-part remedy: Patnaude would present a conventional concept plan showing 11 lots — shifting the bonus calculation to two lots and keeping the total at 13 — while the Planning Board would amend its decision before the MGL Chapter 40A 20-day window closes Monday to add the explicit findings the original decision lacked.