In Plymouth, the Zoning Board of Appeals, or ZBA, hosted a standing-room only crowd at Town Hall on February 27th, to hear New Hope Chapel’s request to construct a 787-seat church, with 365 parking spaces.
This, in an area zoned Rural Residential on Joshua’s Way, off Long Pond Road. State and federal laws say that with respect to zoning, a church can be built in any zone in town. The ZBA unanimously approved the project.
WATD’s Bobbi Clark has more…
Michael Main, Chairs the Zoning Board of Appeals:
“We’ve had this case in front of us since, I believe last October –and it’s been four or five times that they’ve been before the Board. They’ve spent an awful lot of time tuning that project. By tuning it I mean they’ve downsized it. There was quite a controversy over gravel removal there and it started out as a couple of hundred thousand yards and it’s down to sixty thousand yards or so.”
And in a January 6 letter to the ZBA, from engineers for the project, Atlantic Design Engineers, New Hope Chapel agreed to reduce the earth removal from 68,000 cubic yards to 64,747 cubic yards, and to eliminate the originally proposed amphitheater.
At the meeting, on behalf of the proponents, Groundscapes Express presented a landscaping plan and the Attorney for New Hope Chapel, Bill Sims, believes that plan was influential in the Board’s decision:
“I think the plan that was presented to the Board was extremely well conceived. They took into consideration the native plantings, respect and buffers for all the abutting neighbors, I think that was a huge determining factor in the Board’s approval.”
Chairman Main restricted public comment stating that no one who had spoken at previous meetings would be permitted to speak unless they had new information to add. Even so, some folks tried to be heard, one of them was retired attorney and Town Meeting Member, Richard Serkey, who was allowed to say a few words, but was then cut off by the Chair.
