Rindge Planning Board seeks info on Sunoco site

Planning Board ex-officio Tom Coneys and member Kim McCummings review plans for proposed auto repair and screen printing businesses on Route 119.

Planning Board ex-officio Tom Coneys and member Kim McCummings review plans for proposed auto repair and screen printing businesses on Route 119. COURTESY PHOTO

By ASHLEY SAARI

Monadnock Ledger-Transcript

Published: 10-03-2024 11:30 AM

The Rindge Planning Board has continued an application seeking a minor site plan approval and conditional use permit to allow two new businesses in the former Sunoco gas station on Route 119 – an auto repair shop and a screen printing and embroidery business.

Though sharing a property, the minor site plan for the screen printing business and conditional use permit for the auto repair are filed as separate applications.

Before accepting the application as complete, the board had to consider a request by the applicant, Rob Martel, representing Granite Trust, to waive a requirement for certification of the land’s septic system. Martel said he had spoken to multiple engineers who wouldn’t certify the tank, as required by town regulation, unless they had installed the system themselves.

Chair Roberta Oeser acknowledged that the regulations would likely need adjusting, attesting to the fact that unless they are new, systems are rarely certified again. However, she said she was uncomfortable waiving the requirement altogether. Other members of the board agreed that at minimum, the town needed to know where the system is located, what kind of system it is and whether it is leaching onto the sloped area that runs off the property.

“It’s troubling to me that we don’t have any information on what’s in the ground,” Oeser said.

Planning Board member Max Geesey said the board should be able to reach a “happy medium,” and eventually the board directed Martel to have an inspector look at the system and provide information on what kind of system it is, where any output is going, and its current condition. They said that if that information was provided, the board would be willing to waive the requirement for certification.

Martel agreed, and the board continued the hearing until a specially scheduled meeting on Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. in the town offices.

In other cases before the board on Tuesday, the board held a conceptual consultation with Sam Girgis, who owns 1343 Route 119, the location of the Pizza Haven. A conceptual consultation is sometimes held before a formal application is submitted, to get feedback from the board on any major issues. Girgis explained to the board that in addition to keeping the Pizza Haven, which also has an attached apartment, he would like to build a convenience store on the property, with apartments above.

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Oeser said multiple buildings on a single property are allowed within the Gateway Central Zoning District, and mixed use is encouraged, but that the main issue would be ensuring that there is sufficient sewer and water to serve the additional business and homes.

The board also considered and approved, in a unanimous vote, a proposed lot line adjustment submitted by Corey and Anna Taylor of 63 Main St. and Bruce White for an unbuilt property adjacent to the Taylors.

Russ Huntley, of Huntley Survey design, representing the applicants, explained that in the Village District, properties are required to be over two acres. One of the lots in question, the one with the home on it, is about 3 1/2 acres, and the other, a nonconforming lot created pre-zoning, is about 0.65 acres. The property line adjustment reduces the larger lot to about 2.96 acres, and makes the unconforming just under 1.2 acres. The board said that the adjustment allowed the house lot to keep more than two acres, and made the other lot more conforming, though it still fell short of the two-acre requirement. The board approved the adjustment 7-0.

In another proposed lot-line adjustment, the board did not accept the application for a proposal between two non-conforming lots, each of which was under an acre on LaChance Drive. The board informed the applicant, Richard Genovese, that the board could not make a lot less conforming, and that a variance would have to be applied for to move forward with the application. The applicant decided to withdraw the application, rather than submit a variance.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.