Planning board to review Park North applications under prior contract-zone rules after legal memo; Waterfall Drive hearing continued to July 15

The Socko Planning Board on May 6 agreed to evaluate applications in the Park North contract zone under the contract provisions that existed at the time of the 2021 zoning ordinance repeal, after staff presented a legal memorandum concluding that the Park North contract zones met the ordinancedefinition of "substantial construction." The board then heard an update on the Waterfall Drive residential proposal and continued the public hearing to July 15.

Planning staff planner Emily Kolb told the board she had asked the law firm Bernstein Shur to review an internal legal framework prepared by Jim Katsafikas. Kolb said the memo applies a previously used three-bucket framework ("substantial construction met," "legally nonconforming/completed," and "null and void") and that, if the Planning Board concurs with staffanalysis, the board may evaluate the Park North applications based on the contract-zone standards in effect at the time the 2021 zoning ordinance was repealed.

That legal interpretation…