Unsafe Access Tops List Of Concerns For Sandwich Road 40B

Safety topped the agenda Wednesday night, as the Bourne Zoning Board of Appeals continued its review of a proposed 32-unit affordable housing development, next door to the Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School on Sandwich Road in Bourne.
The property is owned by Foretop Drive resident Thomas C. Pappas.
Public comments about the project Wednesday ranged from that of abutter Elias C. Habeeb, who called the project “just unthinkable,” to those of Bourne Firefighter David S. Pelonzi and others, who were concerned about access by emergency services over the narrow, 20-foot-wide ways shown on the plans.
Of further concern was how small the cul-de-sac planned for the top of the site would be.
Board member John E. O’Brien said he was particularly concerned that a fire truck could not easily or quickly leave the site of several of the planned units, ones accessed off the main way.
The entrance to the property and the development’s internal roadways were initially planned to serve a single-family home, board members heard. What was acceptable as a driveway to that home is not acceptable for a 32-unit development, said Town Planner Coreen V. Moore.
Board Chairman Lee M. Berger noted that the applicant had the Bourne fire chief’s memorandum of concerns since the last hearing on the matter, but had not as yet met with the fire department to address concerns.
Civil engineer Raul Lizardi-Rivera of Holmes & McGrath of Falmouth, one of the applicant’s representatives, said that he would address those concerns if the fire department provided him with data and a template showing the wheelbase and turning radius of its equipment.
Mr. Berger also commented on the right-turn-in, right-turn-out-only rule that had been imposed on access to the Sandwich Road site by the Massachusetts Highway Department, when it approved a curb cut onto the road for the property.  
Mr. Berger said that people would either ignore the rule, turning left across traffic, or make unsafe turnarounds at the John Gallo Ice Arena or nearby housing developments on the Sandwich side.
Bourne Planning Board member John P. Howarth, accompanied at the meeting by fellow planning board members Peter M. Meier and Douglas C. Shearer, talked about the gateway entrance to the project, which he said was “no way near wide enough,”  particularly since it sits on one of the worst curves on Sandwich Road.
Mr. Howarth noted that the right-turn-only rule was designed for safety. Rather than worry over U-turns, which were the responsibility of the police department, he suggested that the board impose a condition similar to the one imposed on the Christy’s operation at the former Quintal’s Restaurant site on Scenic Highway.
That project was required to design and finance a median strip for that road, one that would prevent or discourage left-hand turns into that site. That operation could not open until MassHighway had completed the construction.
As for the inevitable U-turns drivers would make, those, Mr. Howarth said, should be left to the police department to deal with
Mr. Howarth also cited problems with access that would be caused by the steep slope of the site. He said that he knew of no other development in town, where a road with such a steep grade empties into a heavily traveled road. In winter, he said, “You’ll never get a fire truck up there.”
Bourne Police Chief Earl V. Baldwin and Glen Cannon, a transportation expert with the Cape Cod Commission, also weighed in with concerns.
Several of those concerns, it was suggested, could be alleviated if the project’s roadways tied into the proposed access to CanalSide Commons planned nearby.
That access, which would end at a traffic light on Sandwich Road, was still a possibility, the applicant’s attorney, Paul J. Attea said. He said communication remained open with CanalSide developer Lenord G. Cubellis.
On another front, Ms. Moore noted that the project is required to meet smart growth and low impact stormwater design criteria. She referred the applicant to a self-check list of those requirements, also online.
It became clear that it might be in the applicant’s best interest to take some of the comments they had heard under advisement, coming back to the board with revised plans.
Mr. Berger suggested that those plans, which should incorporate the smart growth requirements, might involve a reduction in the density of the project.
To that end, the matter was continued to September 3.
Zoning board Chairman Lee M. Berger said at the beginning of the meeting that the town had already notified the applicant that Bourne has met its affordable housing requirement for this year, something that allows the town to more freely deny or place reasonable conditions on the project.
Since the last meeting of the zoning board, the applicant has disputed that assertion, and the parties are awaiting a final determination from the Department of Community and Housing Development.
In the meantime, Mr. Berger said the board was prepared to continue discussing the substance of the application.
When the possibility of denying the application was raised, the town’s consulting attorney, Jon D. Witten, pointed out that, were the board to deny the application, it could be refiled next year and, at that time, the town might not have met its annual affordable housing goals. If it had not, the project might go forward without all of the conditions the town felt it necessary to impose.
He suggested, instead, that the town set reasonable conditions and help create the best project that it could.
He also pointed out that, were the board and the applicant to reach an impasse, the project might be the “perfect application” for discretionary referral to the Cape Cod Commission as a development of regional impact.