Pepperell Planning Board Continues Hollis Street Housing Hearing, Closes Marijuana Permit Record

PEPPERELL — September 21, 2020 — Pepperell Planning Board continues Hollis Street housing hearing, closes marijuana dispensary record, and adopts affordable housing plan. The board voted unanimously to continue a special permit hearing for a four-unit condominium development at 33–35 Hollis Street to October 5, after engineer Doug Lees of Land Engineering and Environmental Services presented plans substantially unchanged from a 2008 approval that had expired in 2019, and Planning Director Lisa Davis said architectural drawings were required before the board could make the finding needed to reduce building separation to 20 feet. The board also unanimously closed the public hearing for Uma Flowers, an adult-use marijuana dispensary proposed at 2 Tarbell Street, after attorney Valerio Romano of VGR Law Firm presented an updated site plan confirming 44 parking spaces, a VFW overflow lot with 25 spaces and a shuttle, and an appointment-only ordering system limiting customers to 13 per 15-minute window. Board member Al warned, "I don't want to end up with a situation like we have with Dunkin' Donuts where we run through an approval and we have a cluster on the street that we can't seem to solve." The board unanimously adopted a 2021–2025 Housing Production Plan developed by the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments, which showed Pepperell has remained at 130 affordable units and a 3 percent affordability rate since 2014, with even the most aggressive scenario projecting only 8 percent by 2025 — well short of the state's 10 percent goal.