WESTFIELD – The Planning Board issued an “administrative continuance” for two public hearing items on the agenda and adjourned until its next posted meeting, Aug. 19, because enough members were not in attendance to constitute a quorum.
Four of the current seven members were present for roll call, a number which has historically been considered a quorum, but that definition has changed as the result of an opinion handed down by the Law Department.
The Planning Board is comprised of seven voting members, six ward representatives and one At-large member, and two alternative members who can vote in certain restricted situations, such as when a full voting member is not eligible.
State law requires that Planning Board members attend the public hearing on special permit and subdivision petitions and that they are ineligible to vote if they missed a public hearing session. A public hearing can be conducted in one session or spread over months, making perfect attendance less likely.
An example of a public hearing which spans months and multiple meetings was on the agenda last night, a special permit, site plan and stormwater plan submitted on March 18 by Julie and Nabil Hannoush, who are represented by Levesque Associates, Inc., for their property at 99 Springfield Road.
The alternates are available to vote for an ineligible voting member if the alternate has attended all of the public hearing sessions. The current two alternates vote regularly because the board is short two “voting” members, a Ward 1 representative and the At-large representative.
Principal Planner Jay Vinskey requested the Law Department to provide him with guidance because a new subdivision was reviewed by the board, which falls under different, although similar, state and local laws and regulations than special permits.
Assistant City Solicitor Shanna Reed cited Massachusetts General Law (MGL), Chapter 40A, section 9 and 81A, stating that in the absence of local ordinance specifically defining the roll of alternate members, they are to be considered to be members of the Planning Board for subdivision control applications.
State Law further required a 2/3 super majority to grant special permits, which on a seven member board is affirmative votes of five members, which historically has been the practice in Westfield. If the board consists of nine members, that super majority increases to six affirmative votes.
Reed said “…there is no mention of associate membership in the provision of the zoning ordinance that speaks to the Planning Board in their role as (a) special permit granting authority.”
Vinskey said that the issues would be a subject of discussion by the Planning Board in the future to identify some resolution to maintaining its past practices with regard to participation of the associate members.
