Neighbors protesting seniors at ZBA

On Saturday, a group of kids were playing catch with a tennis ball and two Velcro pads on the front lawn of a Chestnut Street home, while family members stood around on the porch waiting for the latest round of barbecue fare. It was the type of idyllic neighborhood setting usually reserved for Norman Rockwell paintings.

And it’s that slice-of-the-American-dream tranquility, and the fear of losing it, that prompted several Chestnut Street residents to start a petition urging the Zoning Board of Appeals to deny a special permit that would allow construction of a new senior center on the heavily traveled street.

On June 26, Paul Noland and Raphael Cody presented the Zoning Board of Appeals with a petition signed by seven abutters of 239 Chestnut St., outlining their opposition to plans to build a new senior center on the property that formerly housed the James Kirby American Legion Post.

“As we understand it, 239 Chestnut St. is zoned as a residential neighborhood district,” reads the petition. “According to our understanding of the zoning bylaws of the town of Clinton, the purpose of [such a district] is ‘to provide areas in which sound residential development may occur and be protected from future conflict with incompatible non-residential development.’ We believe it should be self-evident that construction of a municipal facility of any kind on the subject property would violate this purpose.”

The petition then goes on to cite the “potential fiscal impact” to the town from taking control of a new municipal building without funding to pay for maintenance, and traffic flow and safety concerns as additional reasons to deny the special permit.

At this year’s Town Meeting, voters overwhelmingly approved spending $1.4 million to construct a new senior center. Currently, the center is located in the Perkins Building on High Street, but the Council on Aging says there isn’t space there to provide adequate services to a rapidly growing elderly population.

In September, voters will also have to pass a Proposition 2 1/2 debt exclusion to raise property taxes to cover the $1.4-million expense before plans can move forward.

Local developer Donald Dobeck purchased the legion post property and is proposing building a 5,500-square-foot, single-level ranch house on the lot. Plans say the building could be expanded to 7,900 square feet if the town chooses to do so at a later date.

Under Dobeck’s proposal, he would raze the legion post and construct the new building on the property, which the town would then be obligated to buy for $1.4 million. Plans also call for creating 30 parking spaces, as well as repairing the sidewalks on Chestnut Street that lead to the new center.

Shelley Scesny, who lives across the street from the proposed location, disagrees with her neighbors and said the neighborhood would benefit by hosting a new senior center.

“I think that would be the perfect place,” Scesney said Monday. “It’s right in between the senior citizen housing that’s here and Central Park. The seniors at the housing development are all great people and I don’t have a problem with the center being across the street from us.”

And while Chestnut Street is mostly residential properties, there are several commercial and municipal properties in the immediate vicinity, including a building used by Verizon, a doctor’s office, the subsidized senior housing project and a funeral home. There also used to be a pharmacy located on the corner of Church and Chestnut streets that has since been reverted back to a residential property.

Zoning Board of Appeals member Bob Latini, however, believes that despite the businesses in the area, Chestnut Street should be considered a residential neighborhood and not a mixed-use area. He also pointed out the businesses in the area are either preexisting nonconforming uses or were forced to obtain a special permit to operate. If plans to build a new center on the site are to move forward, Latini said a special permit would be required.

There are some problems with Dobeck’s proposal, including traffic and egress problems, Latini said, but those are wrinkles that could be ironed out during a site plan assessment.

As for possibly denying the plan because of the residential makeup of the neighborhood, Latini said until he sees a more detailed proposal, it is hard to comment on any potential problems or affects a new Senior Center may have on the neighborhood.

“There are six or seven criteria that we can use to deny a plan,” Latini said. “The whole problem with this proposal is that they are way ahead of the curve; zoning should still be six months down the road. People are asking all these questions, but they are all hypothetical because we don’t even know what is being proposed up there yet.”

The group of residents that submitted the petition voicing opposition to the plans did not return calls to comment for this story.