Progress Made On Stone Horse Occupancy Permit

By: William F. Galvin

HARWICH – Progress was made at the July 25 planning board session in the effort by Main Street Stone Horse to receive a renewed temporary occupancy permit for the dormitories it operates on Route 28 in South Harwich. The board was not yet ready to consent to a new temporary permit, however.

The dormitories constructed at the former Stone Horse Hotel have been operating without a permanent occupancy permit since the project was approved in May 2019. Building Commissioner Jack Mee has been working to bring the project into compliance over the past several months.

Citing progress made this past spring, Mee issued a 120-day temporary occupancy permit, which is now due to expire on Sept. 15. However, the occupancy contracts for the 180 tenants living there run through the end of October, according to attorney William Riley, who represents owner Ronald Rudnick.

At a July 11 meeting, Mee detailed the outstanding conditions that need to be met before he would issue another temporary permit allowing the residents to remain there through October. In a letter to the board, he challenged some of the assertions of progress that were made in a July 20 letter from Riley.

Riley last week presented the planning board with the update. In the most recent site plan review application, a request for 10 additional parking spaces was sought. Riley said the applicant is no longer seeking those spaces. The contracts for J-1 visa residents next year will control the number of vehicles allowed to park there, he said.

The major outstanding issues center around landscaping, paving, lighting, and the need for a sprinkler system in the manager’s facilities, which includes six units of workforce housing, which remains an outstanding issue.

“The buildings, with the exception of the outbuildings…will be sprinkled for fire safety,” Mee wrote in his letter, citing language in the initial decision allowing for the two 42-unit dormitories.

Riley said the plan is to convert the manager’s building to a single-family residence because it would cost $100,000 to install a commercial sprinkler system. He said residents in the manager’s building would be relocated to the dormitories as space opened up. Members of the board agreed the sprinkler issue is not up to them to resolve, rather it is an issue that should be worked out between Mee and the project architect.

Riley previously told the board vegetative screening along the north boundary failed to grow twice because of water restrictions and drought conditions. The owner proposed to install a six-foot stockade fence along a portion of the north side to serve as screening and reduce noise.

But board members insisted on the vegetative screening. Member Mary Maslowski wanted to know whether it was the drought or some other reason the vegetative screening did not survive. She requested an answer from the landscape architect and requested that the owner present a landscape plan from a registered landscape architect at the next meeting. Riley said it would take time to retain an architect to develop a plan.

Walkway lighting also got a mixed review from the board. The consensus was the lighting from the buildings was adequate, but the idea of using hardwired low-level lighting or solar lighting received mixed reviews from board members. Damaged hardwired lighting requires much more maintenance to replace, Riley said. He added that when the power goes out solar light still work.

“Everything being proposed here is a way of the applicant saving money,” said board member Harry Munns. “Four years later we’re still talking about simple stuff. It makes me feel like we’re being played.”

“It’s not a way of saving money,” Riley said. “Solar lights along the sidewalk are easier to replace.”

Riley said a contractor has been hired to do parking and sidewalk paving in August. The board was provided with a copy of the agreement with the paving company and a copy of the deposit receipt. That met with the board’s approval.

One of the neighbors had also requested the access and egress to the Stone Horse property along Old County Road be blocked off.

“A neighbor wants us to give up a property right, which we’re not going to give up,” said Riley.

Given Riley’s concern for retaining a landscape architect and getting a plan done, the board agreed to continue the hearing to Tuesday, Aug. 22.