LYNN — When coronavirus shuttered government buildings, zoning boards of appeals in Swampscott and Salem quickly switched to online meetings while Lynn’s planning and zoning boards suspended them, leaving people with business before the boards wondering when they will get heard.
“People ask me every day, ‘When’s it going to happen?’” said Lynn attorney Samuel Vitali.
Albert DiVirgilio, owner of REMAX 360 in Lynn, said builders and developers need to meet regularly with city planning and zoning boards in order to move projects forward.
“There is planning and a pre-preparation process that has to take place. All that downtime is delaying things and that’s difficult for the builders and homeowners I talk to,” DiVirgilio said.
Planning and zoning boards of appeal (ZBA) play the lead role in cities and towns determining how projects ranging from major
construction to adding a back deck to a home proceed.
Coronavirus social distancing restrictions canceled live government meetings in March and prompted state emergency orders extending dates and deadlines for projects filed with boards across Massachusetts.
Lynn Mayor Thomas M. McGee said city officials are meeting to determine how soon City Hall can reopen for business, including public meetings. McGee and Lynn’s planning and ZBA chairmen said pivoting the boards to online meetings proved too challenging.
“We did not have the bandwidth to allow public input instantaneously,” McGee said.
McGee and ZBA Chairman Norman Cole said zoning hearings are complicated meetings with board members discussing detailed requests brought by people who come before the board armed with plans and engineering reports.
Cole said ZBA members doubted they could ensure adequate and fair public input during virtual meetings.
“Our meetings are hands-on, a lot would be lost,” Cole said.
Stilian, the Planning Board chair, echoed that perspective.
“In those virtual meetings, a lot gets lost,” he said.
But Salem’s ZBA, beginning with its April 1 meeting, switched to a virtual format with the board’s website page explaining in detail how to log on to the meeting and submit public comment.
“Members of the public attending this meeting virtually will be allowed to make comments if they wish to do so, during the portion of the hearing designated for public comment. The Board Chair, with the assistance of City Staff, will provide all participants in the Zoom meeting an opportunity to speak and indicate whether they would like to provide public comment,” states the Salem ZBA page.
Swampscott ZBA switched to virtual meetings with Zoom and Smartphone connection options. The board’s agendas state that there is no public discussion option for the virtual meetings and all business before the board is being moved to the next meeting.
Other area communities, including Lynnfield, canceled zoning meetings.
Stilian, Lynn’s Planning Board chairman, and Cole stressed that their boards have not had emergency or critical matters before them since March. Vitali, an attorney who has represented people filing permits and plans with the city for years, said the state emergency order protects board requests from expiring or becoming invalid.
The ZBA has 16 cases pending and local developers and there is frustration and irritation over the lack of online business being done by Lynn boards.
“If someone needs to go before a board and can’t do so, that creates a problem. If someone needs approval to move forward, they’re in a holding pattern,” said Lynn builder David Solimine Jr.
Solimine’s 17-home Kelly Lane project needs Lynn Planning Board review relative to a neighborhood concern, and the contentious Quinn/Judge Road project reviewed by the board in February remains outstanding, with Vitali needing to submit drainage calculations to the Conservation Commission.
“We can’t present them. They haven’t met,” he said.
The inability to move a project through the city approval process is even more frustrating, said DiVirgilio, now that rock-bottom interest rates are available to finance projects.
City Inspectional Services Director Michael Donovan said the city isn’t losing money because the boards haven’t met. Application fees ranging from $200 to several thousand dollars paid to the city when applications were filed with the planning and zoning boards have been deposited into the city treasury.
But DiVirgilio said not holding planning and zoning meetings has a local economic impact because projects aren’t moving forward, construction isn’t starting and workers aren’t getting paid.
“Government needs to think more like a business,” he said.
