Online used auto sales plan stalls out in East Marlborough

EAST MARLBOROUGH » The East Marlborough supervisors called John Jaros “an extremely gifted and imaginative lawyer” even as they made his life harder on Nov. 6. Jaros came before the township board of supervisors on two different matters at their monthly meeting Nov. 6, and in neither did he get the decision he might have preferred.

The first situation Jaros presented was a proposal by the owner of the Audi dealership on Route 202 to

open a kind of satellite facility on a three-acre parcel on Gale Lane. The site would be used for storage of new cars and for service and sales on used ones.

That would happen within an already existing building, Jaros said, with no new construction on the lot, no increase in the paved surface, no new lighting except what security required, and only a simple sign on the building itself. The sales would be done mostly online, he said.

Jaros repeatedly stressed that the operation would be nothing like an ordinary auto sales operation, and dubbed it “auto sales lite.” For this reason, he said, he believed it would be appropriate for the site, which is in the limited-industrial zoning district.

That district does not explicitly allow for auto sales, but it has a catchall provision in which uses not allowed for elsewhere in the township can be proposed.

Cuyler Walker, the chair of the planning commission, at this point drew a laugh as he smilingly observed that the applicant had “an extremely gifted and imaginative lawyer.” But while the type of use Jaros proposed might be appropriate in the limited-industrial district, auto sales were permitted in two other kinds of districts within the township, Walker said.

The idea of the catchall provision was to allow uses not provided by any other district, Walker said, and even a so-called “lite” auto sales use would be required by the ordinance to operate in the districts where it was formally allowed. In his view, Walker said, Jaros’s applicant would need a variance to operate as proposed at that site.

Supervisor Christine Kimmel said she did not think the proposed use was a problem in itself, but she did not think the catchall provision was intended to work that way. Township Solicitor Frone Crawford said that in addition to a variance, Jaros could also propose a zoning amendment as a way to go forward.

150-unit townhouse development

Jaros had at least partial success with another project, a 150-unit townhouse project on a 32-acre tract on Schoolhouse Road. The supervisors had agreed to approve the preliminary land-development plan contingent on Jaros and the developer making a good-faith effort to create a stretch of road that might, as development proceeded on adjacent tracts, provide a way for residents to get to Walnut Road, thus easing traffic flow in the broader area.

The designers had created two alternatives, Jaros said, one heading southwest and another heading more due west. He said the second was more advantageous for the developer, and the owner of the adjacent property was willing to cooperate to help bring about the supervisors’ wish for better traffic flow in the area.

The supervisors approved that approach, although Eddie Caudill voted against it.

But the supervisors were less amenable to Jaros’s proposal to solve a problem with inadequate sight distance at the main entrance by putting in a three-way stop sign.

The problem was that the best place to put the entrance was at the top of a crest, but that was currently impossible because of a setback requirement in relation to a neighboring property. The other solutions were to do expensive road work or to buy a piece of the neighboring property to eliminate the setback issue.

Jaros made it clear the developer preferred the stop-sign idea to the relatively greater expense and negotiations involved with the other options. But the supervisors said they would very much prefer continued negotiations to see if the entrance could be moved to the higher area.

In other business, the supervisors voted to have former Township Manager Jane Laslo fill a vacancy on the zoning hearing board, citing her long experience with the township. Supervisor Robert Weer voted against the appointment.