Williamstown ZBA OKs Home Businesses
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Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Andrew Hoar, right, conducts Thursday's meeting. |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Zoning Board of Appeals on Thursday approved special permits for two home-based small businesses and continued a public hearing for another that has generated opposition from its potential neighbors.
In a pair of unanimous decisions, the ZBA greenlighted a private counseling business at the residence of Courtney Gibson on Berkshire Drive and a law office in the residence of Kevin Coffman Bopp on Cole Avenue.
But the board continued until its September meeting a request by A. Carlos Correa to operate a bed and breakfast in his home at 61 Cobbleview Road. Correa asked for the continuance so he could continue to gather information in support of his request.
Correa's permit application has drawn considerable interest among residents in the quiet residential neighborhood just south of Adams Road. Although Correa did not attend Thursday's meeting in person, several neighbors did and they presented the ZBA with a list of concerns they feel have not been addressed about the operation of a business at the site.
The board accepted the letter but took no action on the application.
The other two applications were less contentious. In each case, the business in question will be secondary to the homes' primary use as residences.
Bopp told the board he currently operates his law practice from an office on Water Street but wants to be able to work from home. It's a good fit with the nature of his business, he said.
"Eighty percent of my business is real estate law with a good majority of the balance being estate planning," Bopp said. "Some of my clients are banks and it's all computer and Internet-based research."
Bopp said he anticipates low foot traffic at his home office and that he has enough off-street parking to accommodate visitors.
"This week, I probably had 10 people come into my (Water Street) office," Bopp said. "I only have one employee, though I don't expect her to have a desk there. She will be picking up and delivering documents. I don't expect her or any employee to be regularly working at my house."
One abutter did raise issues about the creation of office space in the General Residence district.
"Parking in the yard is a little disturbing because I'll be looking at it," said Steven Shoreman of 91 Cole Ave. "I'm concerned about parking in the yard for 10 people."
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Zoning Board of Appeals member David Levine makes a point during Thursday's meeting. |
Bopp told the ZBA that he owns a half acre of property at 103 Cole Ave. and could, by right, add more paved surface if he feels at some point it is necessary. But he indicated that most meetings at his office are small, involving just a few parties at a time for real estate closings. In any event, he hopes to do the majority of his closings off-site, at bank offices or in the office of the Registry of Deeds in Adams.
Board member David Levine recommended that on days when Bopp is holding a meeting at the residence he park his own car in his yard to open up paved spaces for meeting participants.
Gibson of Berkshire Drive told the ZBA that she had four paved spots at her home, enough to accommodate her cars and those of up to two visitors at a time. And that is the maximum level of traffic she expects to see as a personal color consultant.
"Basically, it's harmonizing color to your skin tones," Gibson said. "It takes about two hours to analyze a person. It's more colors of clothing than makeup and hair. ... It's draping people in colors to see which ones are harmonious with their skin tone."
Gibson said she was trained in Canada in the technique, learning the most up-to-date methods for coordinating wardrobes to complement a person's natural coloring.
"I could tell that what I was wearing was terrible," Gibson said. "I had had my colors done in the '70s, and I could see that the way they analyzed it had changed."
A more recent analysis produced better results, she said.
"I was really pleased and people were asking me about it ... so I went and got trained," she said.
In other business on Thursday, the ZBA approved a special permit for a new deck on Kyle Johnson's Sunset Drive property. The deck will replace an existing three-season porch at the residence.
Both the porch and planned deck come within 18 feet of the road, a violation of the required 30-foot setback. The ZBA permitted the new deck under the principle that the modification does not change the nonconformity of an already nonconforming property - in a sense, determining that the nonconformity was grandfathered.
