Library trustees seek zoning changes

Say building project at risk due to delays

By Lisa Kocian, Globe Staff, 10/5/2003

Frustrated by the slow progress of its library expansion, the Norfolk Board of Library Trustees is asking Town Meeting this month to adopt zoning changes that would speed the construction of a $5.3 million addition.

The reason to circumvent the normal approval process before town boards, said library trustee Harvey Boulay, is that the state, which has committed $2.3 million to the expansion, has warned the town that things are moving too slowly.

Residents approved the project almost two years ago, and library officials have been working constantly since then to obtain all the necessary approvals, Boulay said. But he said it became clear recently that doing so would take too long.

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners "could conceivably withdraw our state funding, so we felt we couldn't go through what was obviously going to be a protracted process," Boulay said.

Patience Jackson, a consultant for the state library board, sent a Sept. 29 letter to the Norfolk library director saying that construction should have begun by Aug. 15. In a phone interview, Jackson said although the town is in no immediate danger of losing the funding, it may eventually have to forfeit the money if the project continues to stagnate.

"I am concerned because Norfolk is not proceeding as fast as they need to," she said. "It's a good project, but it seems as though things aren't meshing yet, for a variety of reasons, and they need to move forward."

The attempt to fast-track the project at the Oct. 28 Town Meeting has clearly irritated some in town, who say the library should play by the same rules as any construction project rather than trying to dodge them.

"The rules are the rules," said Steven McClain, vice chairman of the Planning Board. "Their problem is they are not even attempting to comply."

If voters approve the zoning changes proposed by the library trustees, the project will still have to continue the approval process before the Planning Board, albeit with some new guidelines. But the project would be able to skip the Zoning Board of Appeals altogether.

"I have great difficulty with that. I have great difficulty with anybody changing the rules," said Bruce Simpson, chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals.

The Post Office did that -- skipped the Planning Board's site plan review -- and now people complain that the design makes it difficult to drive in and out, Simpson said. He said he can't recall a municipal project that the board has denied, adding that most commercial projects are also approved.

But Boulay said the problem is that the rules for town center adopted in 1992 were written for commercial and residential development. Not much thought was given to municipal buildings, he said.

Indeed, he said, Town Meeting agreed to zoning changes a few years ago that allowed Town Hall to be built across from the library.

"The rules were never intended to apply to a library or municipal structure," Boulay said. "It was basically an oversight."

The library is asking, for example, for permission to provide 62 rather than the required 92 parking spaces and to build a facade lower than the required 20 feet because the design is only one story high. Library officials also want to be exempted from a requirement that 70 percent of the facade be windows or doors.

If Town Meeting approves the zoning changes, construction could begin as early as March, Boulay predicted, and would take 12 to 14 months to complete.

Boulay said he hopes an expansion of the already popular library will speed up development of the adjacent, vacant property, which is the subject of one active housing proposal.

"It's been 17 years since the town center property was defoliated," he said. "We've gone through now one of the most robust economic periods in the whole history of the area. We have nothing to show for it in terms of commercial development in the town. We see the library project as a way to hopefully jump-start a new phase of development in town center."