By Dana Benson
Save Our Towns/Save Our Schools
The Lisi cabinet business has graduated. The parents want to build a new nest next door to “house it.” Midwife Planning and Zoning approved the new “crib” even though the proposal violates zoning rules and principles. They have made an exception to these rules.
We who oppose this have no beef with the Lisi’s. We thank them for agreeing to sell the town the slice of land between the Easton Village Store and the Emergency Medical Services Building so we can fix EMS. They could have said no. Thank you.
However, the point isn’t that the Lisis are good citizens, as Ray Martin said in his testimony supporting the factory at the Public Hearing. The fact isn’t, as Ray pointed out, that the Lisis shouldn’t be penalized because their land is a visible public location (as if building a factory on a residential lot in a less visible location wouldn’t have provoked such opposition).
The problem is that by issuing this permit, PNZ has set significant new precedents that other landowners in Easton can use to commercialize the town and change its rural character. We have substantial tracks of land and family farms that are getting ready to market. This is what we are concerned about. What is Planning and Zoning going to approve next?
The point is by allowing for the construction of a 3,000 to 4,000-square-foot separate standalone factory on a 1.5-acre lot in the zone that says you can only have one house per 3 acres because it is a residential, Planning and Zoning is setting the following precedents, which other Easton residents can use to bring more commercial development to the town. These precedents include:
-A proposed new septic system will be created and connected to the existing septic system for the three half baths in the new factory. In fact or spirit, this violates Easton’s town law (ordinance) prohibiting “community septic” systems. The law is designed to keep density low to protect the water. How did this happen? I need clarification on the details. Will the connected septic stand up? I don’t know.
-Approving manufacturing and a factory in Easton. This is against our zoning, which allows only for homes, farms, farm-related businesses, and business continuation of enterprises before the zoning was implemented in the 1940s.
-Stretching the concept that “intensifications of existing uses” can be approved by Planning and Zoning, but not “expansions.” How can you say that building a standalone factory as large and potentially larger than the house already on the 1.5-acre lot is not an expansion?
-Stretching the concept of a home-based business beyond what most people would consider the words to mean.
These issues trouble those of us who oppose the Special Permit. We have no beef with the Lisi’s.
