Planning board moves to track outstanding conditions on recent projects including Golden Heights and pickleball courts

The board devoted considerable time on March 12 to outstanding conditions on recent development approvals — notably Golden Heights and the pickleball courts — and agreed to establish a tracking process so conditions are verified and, where necessary, enforced.

Members said several conditions (easements, replacement plantings, snow-storage planting, parking/drainage agreement modifications) were recorded as precedent or subsequent conditions in notice-of-decision documents and that the planning board should follow up to confirm completion. John Racine and the designees on a newly formed follow-up team were charged with compiling the outstanding-condition list and working with the select board and code enforcement officer to ensure required documentation (recorded easements, photographic inventories) is on file.

On the pickleball courts, planners noted the approved decision called for solid 8-foot wood fencing on three sides with noise-mitigation material and plantings; as-built work includes a modified entrance with windows and an altered façade. The code enforcement officer reported that the applicant described aesthetic modifications and that, where changes were within the minor-site-plan allowance, the officer had exercised discretion. The board agreed that where conditions are unmet the planning board will forward a written report to the select board and request enforcement action, and that the planning board should avoid placing itself in a routine position of approving ambiguous "intentions" in lieu of specific conditions going forward.