PLANNING BOARD
April 24, 2002
Special Meeting
6:00 PM
ROLL CALL
Present: Pat Hart, Acting Chair Christine Szigeti-Johnson Alfred Nisbet Deborah Willis
Robert Moody (Alt)
Absent: James Montell Edmund Pelletier
Also Present:
Jeffrey Hinderliter, Planner/CEO Keith Edwards Art Colvin Richard Paradis Michael Webster Chris Paszyc Bill Corish Mike Denis Name-Not
legible William Lovely Paul Brown Gail Brennan George Trask
Brian Rines, Mayor Francis Grey Theresa (Last name illegible) Prince Stevens Nick Alberding
1.) Meeting called to order at 6:00 PM by Acting Chair Hart.
2.) Roll call was taken.
Alfred Nisbet made a motion to elect Pat Hart as Acting Chair. Christine Szigeti-Johnson seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
3.) Consideration of a request for a Conditional Use Permit from Pine State Trading Company to establish a Wholesale Business and Storage use within the Planned Industrial/Commercial Zoning District in accordance with Title 31, Chapter 7, Section 3202, F. 4. 5. of the City of Gardiner Zoning Ordinance. The property is located at Prosperity Street, Tax Map 7, Lots 18-A-5, 6, & 7.
Acting Chair Hart asked the Applicant to present the project.
Kane Coffin of Coffin Engineering, representing Pine State, indicated that Pine State Trading Company had bought 3 lots in the Libby Hill Business Park totaling 30.3 acres with up to 18 acres of impervious surface. Phase I of the project is to build a 166,000 S.F. beverage warehouse. After considering abutters concerns, they made a number of changes to the original plans that include: lowering the building, use Enterprise Avenue instead of Prosperity Street as an entrance, plant a double line of 5 6 conifers between the property and the abutters and have a separate entrance for the employees off Enterprise Avenue. The beverage trucks will be loaded in a drive-thru and then exit via Enterprise Avenue and out of the
park.
Acting Chair Hart asked the Board Members if they had any questions for the Applicant.
Pat Hart asked about the parking. Nick Alberding, General Manager, indicated that if all of the employees were there at one time, they would total 200. They have planned 260 parking spaces planned.
Bob Moody asked if they had talked with the abutters. Kane Coffin said yes.
Jeffrey Hinderliter, Planner/CEO, advised the Board that something they might want to consider is the 2 separate parking standards within the Ordinance. He explained that they have the flexibility to apply the 150 S.F. standard or could base the parking on the number of employees on the largest shift. The Planning Board must cite 1 specific standard. Jeff also indicated that he believed most questions he had were addressed by the Applicant through the meetings that they had and that the Applicant has done their best to try to accommodate the abutting residential properties concerns.
6:19 PM meeting opened to the public.
Mayor Brian Rines said he just wanted to speak on behalf of, he thought, most of the people of Gardiner and he hoped, for the abutters of this park. He said it s been part of Gardiner s dream to have this park be there since at least the 1950s and part of our City plan since the 1970s when we adopted a vision statement. Back in the mid 1990s both Council Member Webster and Council Member Trask and myself voted to take steps that most importantly developed the Libby Hill Business Park. There were a series of votes that the Council has made unanimously going back to 1991 asking for the development and the expenditure of City monies to make this park a reality. He said that he was especially pleased tonight that both Councilor Webster and
George Trask were here. Earlier this afternoon he had looked through some of the previous minutes. He noted that Council Member Webster made one of the motions to start the actual planning process for the park in May of 1998. Council Member Trask made two key motions to apply for the federal grant and then to use City monies to pay for the development of the Park, so in a sense, you have two of the fathers of the park or parents of the park here tonight. He said he thinks we have to balance the needs of the neighborhood and he was glad to hear that the Board Members were looking at that and to hear Jeff Hinderliter, the engineers and the Pine State people talking about meeting with the abutters. He just wanted to tell them again, that to the best of his recollection, there has never been anything but a unanimous vote by Members of the City Council and our professional leadership to go forward with this park and to go forward with the development of these projects, with this
being really one of the major jewels. The plan has always been that this would be a distribution center. This is a major company that is going to move from being a half hour from the Interstate to five minutes to the Interstate and hopefully they are the first of many that will come in. Mr. Hinderliter s concern about precedent is important. He would encourage the Board to be as positive about this as they possibly can. This project reflects the will of the Council and hopefully, most of the people of Gardiner.
Mike Webster, speaking as a citizen of Gardiner, said he would like to confirm Mayor Rines recollections that they are true and correct. He said that as Chair of the Libby Hill Committee at the time, they were very scrupulous in bringing the abutting property owners into the process of development from the very beginning not only on the Libby Hill Road side but around in the other areas. I think we were extremely fair and it was a joint City of Gardiner promotion. He asked if the Applicant proposed landscaping along the side facing the abutters in addition to the existing heavily wooded strip along there. Art Colvin said it is not real heavy because of the wetland, but it is in addition to the landscaping.
George Trask indicated that he was definitely affected by this proposal. He said he is pro-business and will give Gardiner all thumbs-up. He has several questions. The area defined as heavily wooded is on his property line. It is all very little scrubby hardwood trees. He is concerned about the location of the building. He doesn t understand why the building is located where they ve proposed and the parking lot on the other side because the building will be in his back yard. He said there is a large refrigeration unit on the building that will be running all the time. Also he said that he spoke with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in length for the past two weeks and they don t have a site location plan recorded
at the DEP at the moment. He spoke with the DEP late this afternoon 5:45 PM and they have two documents, a noise control plan and a state location plan that they are mailing to him because they are too big to fax. Another issue is that in Gardiner s original permit approved by DEP the City was licensed for a total of 414,000 square feet of space. Last week the Board approved another 13,220 S.F. onto the Mattson project. That brings it up to 40,000 S.F. This building is going to be 163,00 S.F. for the first phase. These two projects will eat up probably around 340,000 S.F. total. The City has already sold lots to Peter Prescott and George Phelps who plan on developing a 40,000 S.F. building. He indicated that there are a lot of lots in this development that will be empty because the DEP isn t going to let the City put in any more than 414,000 S.F. of space. He also says that 60% of it is expected to be for industrial purposes and the other
40% is going to be for office space. So if that is the case, only 248,400 S.F. of this entire 140.5 acres can be used for warehouse, the rest has to be for office space. The City is limiting itself by doing this. He said he isn t saying don t do it, but they could potentially be your only tenant. He said he bets it will be a TIF district and the City won t be getting a lot of tax income from this property for a lot of years. So if they are going to do it, I think they better do it right and plan on having Pine State as their major one time thing because that s what it s going to work out to because the DEP isn t going to change this. He said they made an amendment back in 1999 to change some lot lines so they had enough room, but with the Code here in Gardiner and the Ordinance of using 50%, they re going to use up 14 acres with parking and all of this. So he thinks if they re going to do this and to be good neighbors to everyone out there
and to not cut down on the value of the properties that are abutting this and the entire neighborhood, he thinks that they should give this plan a little more scrutiny because this is really going to impact. He said if you plant 5 7 trees, even the DEP agrees, it s going to be 15 years before there is any noise buffer. He said there is an 18 page DEP noise packet that tells about hours of operation, continuous noise and construction noise, hours of construction and all of this. He said maybe you people need to read this and read the DEP permit because the City of Gardiner, when they transferred the land to Pine State, they transferred this with it. So whatever Pine State does could come back and affect the City of Gardiner. He said say they moved 19,990 yards of fill and that s the amount for the entire park and then they go over it, the City of Gardiner is going to be on the hook for that because at the moment they are working under Gardiner s permit.
This industrial park permit was for the City of Gardiner. It follows through with the leasee or transfers to the landowner when they sell the property. They have to go by the same rules that the City of Gardiner does. If the City of Gardiner has to go by the site plan from the DEP, so does every tenant. He thinks that before anything gets really approved he thinks there should be studies done on lighting and sound because it s going to impact a lot of people. He said he doesn t know how many of the Planning Board live in Ward 7. If they did, you wouldn t want it in their back yard. He asked Bob Moody if he feels the plan was in order. Bob said he hadn t seen a better one.
Acting Chair Hart asked Mr. Trask if what he had in his hand was intended for the Board or to enter into the record. He had a copy of the DEP permit for the Board. She asked if Mr. Trask had anything else he wanted the Board to know. He said no, that was it. She noted that his concerns were about the parking and the refrigeration being close to his property, the DEP s site location plan and the noise level plan, the size of the project, the noise buffer and he s asked the Board to consider lighting and sound. She asked if this is correct? Mr. Trask said yes and then asked how they were going to consider it. Pat Hart said that they would be considering the Review Criteria once the Board hears from everybody else here
tonight. She thanked him for his testimony.
Richard Paradis of Paradis Builders indicated that the first thing they do with any project is to meet with the building inspector in that town. He has met with Jeffrey Hinderliter, the current Planner/CEO and had met previously with the former CEO and went over their plans. The second people they meet with is DEP personally. He met with DEP, Mr. Kellogg, who walked the site with him over a year ago. All issues as far as the earth they are moving, and any issues that the DEP had at that time were addressed. Mr. Kellogg was familiar with what Pine State planned to do. They had no less than three meetings with DEP. The lighting has been all engineered and is all according to State Code. They have that information
for the Board tonight. With respect to the refrigeration unit on the roof, it is a compressor with a fan in it and the loudest refrigerator in a person s house is about the level of noise it makes. It is not a freezer, but a cooler. The roof is 30+ feet in the air and he doesn t think the fan will be heard.
Bill Corish, an abutter, indicated that he and his wife Catherine are owners of property northeast of the proposed building. He indicated that they have concerns similar to what George Trask has and he wanted to thank Mr. Trask for bringing this issue to his attention. They built their house in 1991. They were very familiar with the nature of the area, that it was a residential/commercial zone and support the Business Park and they don t really have any problems with Pine State. When George Trask mentioned that the operation would be a 6 day, 24 hour a day operation, it caught his attention. The primary concerns that he has are the potential for noise and the light in conjunction with the operation at the back of the
building. The plan shows box truck parking. He said he isn t familiar with all the operational issues and maybe the Pine State folks could describe that to him. They are concerned about these vehicles driving around in the middle of the night and on Saturdays - backing up and the impact that s going to have on them. He indicated that it s not really going to impact him because they are moving in a few months but are concerned about the re-sale value and the use of that home by the new owners. They don t really know what kind of noise will be coming out of this facility and it s hard to measure but they are concerned about it. He said they can hear the traffic on the Interstate, but it s off in the distance. They can hear the earth-moving equipment & backing up of it very well right now and it s going on over in the corner where they are working on the entrance. He admits it is heavier diesel equipment, louder and operating all the time, but not being too
sure what could potentially be going on back there as the company grows in scope, it is a concern for them. He feels statements in the Conditional Use Permit Application concerning the many mature evergreens, the thick understory - there is only a handful as far as he can tell - are not correct. There maybe a thick understory in the middle of the summer, but 6 months out of the year there isn t and there are not many mature evergreens. He said he knows there has been some revisions to the plans and he wanted to acknowledge the work the engineer and owner have done. He said he appreciates the work done with the road (it had been a big concern for them) their bedroom is on that side. The lowering of the building and the lights will help. They weren t expecting quite this much of a facility right next door to a residential area in the Business Park. They had heard that Pine State was moving in. They didn t realize it would be a 24 hour a day operation. They are all
for it, but they would have expected something this involved to be a little closer to the Interstate. Although it is his understanding that this is the jewel of the Business Park and from the very beginning it was known pretty much that Pine State apparently was going to be in there, a lot of this is news to him. It sounds like some of this was happening right about when he built there in 1991. When he moved in, there was talk that this was going to be residential back in here, that this loop was going to carry around. We didn t know about this. He thought it would have been buried within the Park away from the residential areas. I think this would have been good urban planning. They were hoping they could get this operation in a different place. He explained his experience as an mechanical engineer and said that he designs facilities that handle different liquids such as fuel and they have trucks that come in and trucks that go out they bring the fuel in and take
the fuel out and/or goes in or out by pipeline. There are all kinds of ways to work these facilities around to make everybody happy. From a pure economic standpoint, he says this is about as efficient as you can get. The way they have the driveway if the trucks are truly just sitting there overnight he doesn t have a real problem. But he wonders if that will really be the case. Will they just be sitting there, will they have refrigerators that will be running, is there going to be noise and on the weekend will there be a lot of activity over here? These are his concerns. He thinks the facility could be modified without a large expense to eliminate activities near the residential area. He asked why can t the employee parking be there?
Pat Hart asked if someone from Pine State that can address his questions. A Pine State representative indicated that the trucks won t be coming and going all hours of the day. There are two times a day between 4:00 AM & 6:00 AM and between 1:00 & 3:00 PM. As far as the lighting goes, the lighting plan shows that there are no more than .2 foot candles at the property line which meets the Gardiner Ordinance criteria.
Nick Alberding said he would try to address Mr. Corish s concerns about the layout of the building. They did spend quite a bit of time to try to lay it out and design it so it is friendly to everybody, but they are in the trucking business and it is a warehouse. The front of the building is where the tractor trailers for incoming freight will be delivered. Those will be the loudest trucks. They will back into the loading docks at the front of the building. Throughout the day the busy area with respect to trucks will be at the front of the building. He gave an overview of the operation. Each day when the box trucks return for the day, they will come down Enterprise Avenue and come in an entrance, come up around and into the
building. The drive thru is enclosed and part of the warehouse. These trucks aren t dock type trucks, they are side loaders like you see a Pepsi truck, etc. They get loaded and unloaded from the sides. That needs to be inside because of the weather. They will go through a reconciliation process with returns coming back and then they will be brought around the building & parked on the abutters side. The truck will be moved one more time to get loaded and then returned & parked to wait for the driver to leave for the day which will be early AM. This part is a five day operation not a six day operation. The trucks will be leaving between 4:30 AM & 6:30 AM and then return depending upon the length of the route. Some trucks may get back at noon, get reconciled and then parked until they are loaded. They begin selecting products at 1:00 in the afternoon and start loading the trucks accordingly and continue loading into the evening. They are then parked and the drivers come in,
check in and then pull out to make their delivery.
Bob Moody asked if there are refrigeration units on the trucks. Mr. Alberding said no. The trucks are non-refrigerated. The would be parked, not running, over night. They start selecting and loading the trucks on Sunday afternoon, but don t start deliveries until Monday AM. They will pull out between 4:30 and 6:30 AM.
Christine Szigeti-Johnson asked at what point do they bring the truck in and load them and then pull them back out again. Nick Alberding said between 3:00 PM and 2:00 AM.
Pat Hart asked if the trucks would be backing up and beeping. Nick said yes. There is activity going on most of the day.
Christine Szigeti-Johnson asked if the number of trucks was around 40. Nick said around 35.
Mr. Webster said he hates to get into something like this, but it disturbs him greatly that this has gone on for so long and Pine State bought this early on. A public hearing was held to determine whether to sell to them. Prescotts the same way they are going to be essentially the same, a trucking and warehouse operation. Where have the neighbors been? Every aspect has been so open and so public.
George Trask said it was very public. They knew it was going to be an industrial park, but we did not know it was going to be a 166,000 S.F. building with 39 parking spaces with 39 backup alarms on our back lawn. We did not know this. Because this plan was not public then. They did not know the location of the massive building in their back yard. They knew it was an industrial park. The City cut all of the trees. Don t save it, pave it - and that is essentially what they were doing. They are paving our back yards. He really thinks there is another way to go about it. He doesn t think anyone would want 39 backup alarms on their back lawn.
Mr. Corish said that they did know the kind of area that they were building in and they were gung-ho for the basic idea of the business park and he did hear it was going to be Pine State moving in there, but it wasn t until George called him the other day and described the nature of the facility that he was concerned. The nature of the facility is the concern that they have combined with the all the operations 24 hr a day. It would cost them a little more money, but they could do something to get all the business up front. That is what bugs him a little bit.
George Trask said if the building was moved to the lower portion of the lot, they could put their trucks against a natural buffer there because it is thick with brush there and there are no houses to impact. He isn t sure what the future proposal will be if it will be office space, but if it were put on the other end, it would eliminate every concern that they have when it comes to the residential impact. It will affect the quality of life for everybody there.
Pat Hart asked if Pine State considered locating, situating or orientating the building differently so that it s in the area that they described. Nick Alberding said they did look at this issue. There are a lot of grade issues and changes would be an issue for future expansion. Kane Coffin explained that the contours are steep and the land falls off sharply. He looked at putting the offices in other areas. The trucks have to drive thru the building to reconcile, unload and reload. They have to park the box trucks on one side and the 18-wheelers on the other. So if you rotate it, you still have the problem. The 39 beepers aren t happening all at one time. They come in at different times. With the current
operation, there are 3 4 beepers at one time. Pine State has tried to address the neighbors concerns with their planning schedule and the modifications they have made.
7:05 PM public hearing closed.
Pat Hart, Acting Chair, thanked the public and the Applicant for their testimony. She said it is helpful as the Board make their decision.
Pat Hart, Acting Chair, read the Finding of Fact.
Jeffrey Hinderliter, Planner/CEO suggested that they go through each of the Review Criteria and the Board should vote on each of them as the go along and also to vote on accepting the addendum.
Christine Szigeti-Johnson made a motion to accept the addendum. Deborah Willis seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Pat Hart read Review Criteria a through j with a vote following the reading of each Review Criteria.
Review Criteria a.
Deborah Willis made a motion to accept Review Criteria a. Christine Szigeti-Johnson seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Review Criteria b.
Deborah Willis made a motion to accept Review Criteria b. Christine Szigeti-Johnson seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Review Criteria c.
Deborah Willis made a motion to accept Review Criteria c. Alfred Nisbet seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Review Criteria d.
Christine Szigeti-Johnson made a motion to accept Review Criteria d. Deborah Willis seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Review Criteria e.
Bob Moody made a motion to accept Review Criteria e. Deborah Willis seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Review Criteria f.
Deborah Willis made a motion to accept Review Criteria f. noting Title 31, Chapter 7, Section 3203 N. 2. h. One space for each person employed or anticipated to be employed. Christine Szigeti-Johnson seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Review Criteria g.
Deborah Willis made a motion to accept Review Criteria g. Christine Szigeti-Johnson seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Review Criteria h.
Christine Szigeti-Johnson made a motion to accept Review Criteria h. Deborah Willis seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Review Criteria i.
Deborah Willis made a motion to accept Review Criteria i. Alfred Nisbet seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Review Criteria j.
Christine Szigeti-Johnson made a motion to accept Review Criteria j. Deborah Willis seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Pat Hart, Acting Chair, read the Code Enforcement Officer s recommended condition.
Bob Moody made a motion to accept the application with the condition.
Condition: The Gardiner Wastewater Treatment Department shall approve the Applicant s proposed wastewater plan prior to building occupancy.
Deborah Willis seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Kane Coffin thanked the Planning Board and Jeffrey Hinderliter, Planner/CEO, for working with them.
4.) Adjourn
Deborah Willis made a motion to adjourn. Alfred Nisbet seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Adjourned at 7:35 PM
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