Proposals for a “healing center” on Route 117 and a veterinary clinic associated with Minuteman High School are expected to come before the Zoning Board of Appeals on June 4 after both matters were continued from the board’s May 7 meeting.
Alison Zook is looking for permission to change the former Stonegate Gardens property from a nursery to Bodhi Healing, “a space for the mind, body and nervous system” without any exterior building modifications. The property is in a residential zone, which normally does not allow any commercial use, but zoning bylaw section 6.1 (page 6 in the bylaw) includes exceptions for commercial greenhouses as well as various other uses such as museums, libraries, and livestock farms excluding pigs. Also acceptable, but only as secondary accessory uses to those allowed in Section 6.1, are things like professional offices, studios, laboratories, and workshops under certain conditions, according to Section 6.1(h).
Under Section 6.2, the ZBA may grant a special permit for certain other uses such as hospitals, sanitariums, nursing homes, charitable institutions, community clubs or country clubs, raising dogs or pigs, private radio and television towers, and “any occupation which otherwise meets the requirements of Section 6.1(h) but which requires the parking of more than four motor vehicles on a regular basis or with respect to which more than one person other than the residents of the premises is engaged in the conduct of such occupation.”
However, at least some of the members of the ZBA, including chair David Summer, were initially unaware at the May 7 meeting that the Stonegate property is in a residential zone and thus subject to the various limits listed above. “‘I’m frankly shocked this is an R1 zone,” he said. “I don’t think those conditions [for a special permit] can be met.”
Though ZBA members were generally in favor of the Bodhi Center idea, they postponed a decision until they could consult with town counsel. “We need to do a little bit of research to see if there’s a path for this,” member David Stifter said.
Mill Street veterinary clinic
Ally Specialty Veterinary Center was initially given the OK by Building Inspector M. Jon Metivier to operate in a building on Minuteman High School’s Mill Street property as an educational use allowed under the Dover Amendment. Business owner Michelle Custead has said that, although Ally is a for-profit business, it will also serve as an educational, hands-on clinical training site needed by Minuteman students studying veterinary sciences.
In April, Mill Street residents including Bob Domnitz, a former Planning Board member, appealed Metivier’s decision to the ZBA. In proposed Dover Amendment exceptions like this, the owner must show that the educational goal is “the primary or dominant purpose” of the proposed use, and this is not the case, according to the appeal.
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