WAKEFIELD — The Zoning Board of Appeals is expected to decide at its Sept. 10 meeting if Robert Santonelli will be allowed to place a small directional sign on the Centre Street side of his building at 376-378 Main Street.
Santonelli owns the building that is occupied by the Dollar Tree Store and a hair salon. He also owns Pride Self-Storage, which is located in the basement of the same building and has its entrance at 2 Centre St.
Representing Santonelli at the ZBA’s August meeting, attorney Brian McGrail told the board that people have had a hard time finding Pride Self-storage and Santonelli would like to place the sign on the corner of the Centre Street-facing side of the building to assist self-storage customers in finding the business. He was seeking a minor modification to allow the sign.
McGrail displayed a “Throwback Thursday” photo from 1940 that appeared in a recent edition of the Daily Item which showed that a sign previously existed in the same spot that Santonelli would like to place the new sign.
ZBA member Chip Tarbell said that he had a hard time believing that people can’t find the self-storage business. He noted that there is already a hanging bracket sign on Centre Street as well as a sign over the door of Pride Self-storage.
“I don’t think we need three signs,” he said.
McGrail noted that the requested new sign would only be 15 square feet and would be installed within an existing sign band near the upper corner of the building.
ZBA member Kasumi Humphries observed that people now use Google maps to find addresses and there was already a bracket sign identifying the business.
McGrail wanted Santonelli to to explain his reasoning for requesting the new sign, but technical difficulties with Zoom prevented Santonelli from being able to speak at the virtual meeting.
Tarbell said that he wanted to hear from Santonelli, who has been a good business owner in the downtown. He suggested tabling the matter to the ZBA’s Sept. 10 meeting.
The board agreed and will address the issue on Sept. 10.
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At its August meeting, the ZBA also addressed a request for a new shed to be installed on property at 28 Morrison Ave.
Representing the property owner Jeffrey Campbell, attorney Christopher Cornetta explained that his client would like to remove an old shed that has been there for at least 40 years and replace it with a new Reeds Ferry shed of approximately the same dimensions.
On behalf or his client, Cornetta was seeking a finding that the new shed would not be any more detrimental than the already non-conforming old shed.
Although Cornetta said that the shed would occupy the same footprint as the old shed, the board noted that on the plans, the new shed appeared to be slightly close to the lot line than the existing shed.
In that case, it would place the shed closer than the required 7.5-foot setback and would require a variance instead of a finding. Board members suggested that moving the proposed new shed a little further off the lot line would solve the problem and the owner could proceed with just the approval of the Building Inspector.
Cornetta agreed to discuss the board’s suggestion with his client.
The ZBA continued the matter to its Sept. 10 meeting but told Cornetta that if the issue is resolved before that, he could simply withdraw the request for a finding.
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The board received an update from Bylaw Review Committee Chairman Daniel Lieber and attorney Mark Bobrowski regarding the recodification of the town’s Zoning Bylaws.
ZBA Chairman Tom Lucey noted that ZBA members have not had an opportunity to look at the most recent revisions. He asked members to review the latest draft and to be prepared to discuss the changes at a board’s meeting in September. The revisions are expected to go before Town Meeting in the fall.