Planning Board Experience

I should have probably put this post together on Wednesday morning while the planning board extravaganza was still fresh in my mind.  I suppose it’s still pretty fresh so here goes.  All in all it went pretty well.  The night was kicked off with some very emotional discussion from residents regarding a giant gas station convenience store “drive-thru” business that is trying to go in on the corner of Dover Point Rd and Thornwood.. I think it’s Thornwood.  What I can say about this is that I have been begging the lords above for a Dunkin’ Donuts on Dover Point Road but after listening to the residents that live there, I’ll go up town for my coffee.  I guess I never really thought about just how residential that area is and those residents DO NOT want the likes of that business coming to a corner near them.  No way… no how.

Next up was a guy that was clearly trying to pull the wool over the eyes of every city official, conservation board, planning board, zoning board.. you name it.  He didn’t get away with it which was great. I think he will keep trying though which is too bad.

We were up last and didn’t even begin our presentation until almost 9:40.  I was and am still very appreciative of every one’s time that night.  We were all there quite late! I think overall it went well and we did get our approval in one meeting which was our goal.  We were not prepared to define the term “night time” which was a condition from the zoning board hearing that no dogs would be outside during night time hours.  Well, basically everyone had a different idea as to what night time actually is.  I think we figured out a good solution and moved on. Night time for K9 Kaos, by the way, is somewhere between 8:00 and 9:00 pm.  Night time for the rest of the City is 11:00 pm except for the 2 acres that K9 Kaos will soon occupy. It works though, dogs will be fast asleep by then!

They hated the sign we proposed.  I didn’t love the sign either, truth be told.  I didn’t really have to propose a sign at the PB meeting since it’s not really something that the Board has to approve.  Sign permits, I believe, are approved by the zoning administrator. I wish I hadn’t submitted the sign because I was a little disappointed with the way the sign discussion was handled and I think I’ll just leave it at that.  I don’t really want to leave it at that, but I will, I guess.  Okay, it’s really killing me and I want to vent, but I can’t.  It’s over and I will have a new sign designed and will submit that for approval separately. It will be a beautiful sign.

Overall my PB experience went pretty well.  The chairman was awesome and made me feel comfortable as did most of the other board members. I thought that all of the discussions with the exception of the sign went really well.  (sorry, I just can’t help myself, but you can actually watch it on TV if you want to, channel 22 in Dover NH)

My team was amazing (here come some well deserved plugs) Jen Viarengo & Gretchen Young from Appledore Engineering in Portsmouth, Chris Wyskiel from Wyskiel, Boc, Tillinghast & Bolduc in Dover, Steve Jensen from Blue Sky Architects in Denver CO, Kim Hazarvartian from TEPP in Salem NH and Dean Mello from cm&b in Lynfield MA.  If you are looking to build a building… look no further, this is your team.

I have to get up bright and early tomorrow morning so that I’m not late for my closing.  Tomorrow FastDogs Realty (that’s me) will be the proud owner of 432 Sixth Street; the future home of K9 Kaos.  Now let the fun begin!