(Feb. 16, 2017) Progress continues towards new commercial design standards in Berlin.
Planning Director Dave Engelhart said the Berlin Planning Commission spent its most recent meeting, last Wednesday, going over the county design standards document and working to apply it to the town.
A January commission meeting was devoted to the same subject.
“We’re getting closer with that,” Engelhart said in a phone interview, Monday. “We made notes last month to revisit and we addressed those, and the members had a few more tweaks to it.”
He said photos in the county document would also have to be replaced with images related to the town.
“It was a good meeting. At least we made progress,” Engelhart said.
Last year, the Town of Berlin budgeted $35,000 to hire an outside firm to develop design standards. One bidder came in under that number, but later backed out, and a second bidder was more than $10,000 over budget. When that happened, the planning commission and Engelhart started work on drafting the text in-house.
Engelhart said he believed the commission was more than capable.
“I think we can do it ourselves. That’s my opinion,” he said. “I think we’ll have a draft document in the next couple of meetings – two meetings maybe.
“We’ve added a few sentences here and there, and the main thing is going to be, when you go through the other document where it refers to Worcester County and maybe a section of their ordinance, you’ve got to plug in Berlin Town Code and the number. That takes time, but it’s just edits then,” Engelhart continued. “If I can, just on our corrections, get them to make a motion to accept it contingent on seeing the draft, I’ll consider it a victory.”
If that happens, the town council would then vote on whether to accept the new standards as a text amendment to town code, Engelhart said. He did not expect any issues to that end.
During the meeting the commission also reelected Chris Denny as chairman.
The Berlin Commission will meeting again on March 8 at 6 p.m. in town hall. Engelhart said that session would also include approval of a steel office building adjacent to the new Arby’s on Ocean Gateway.
Planning Director Dave Engelhart said the Berlin Planning Commission spent its most recent meeting, last Wednesday, going over the county design standards document and working to apply it to the town.
A January commission meeting was devoted to the same subject.
“We’re getting closer with that,” Engelhart said in a phone interview, Monday. “We made notes last month to revisit and we addressed those, and the members had a few more tweaks to it.”
He said photos in the county document would also have to be replaced with images related to the town.
“It was a good meeting. At least we made progress,” Engelhart said.
Last year, the Town of Berlin budgeted $35,000 to hire an outside firm to develop design standards. One bidder came in under that number, but later backed out, and a second bidder was more than $10,000 over budget. When that happened, the planning commission and Engelhart started work on drafting the text in-house.
Engelhart said he believed the commission was more than capable.
“I think we can do it ourselves. That’s my opinion,” he said. “I think we’ll have a draft document in the next couple of meetings – two meetings maybe.
“We’ve added a few sentences here and there, and the main thing is going to be, when you go through the other document where it refers to Worcester County and maybe a section of their ordinance, you’ve got to plug in Berlin Town Code and the number. That takes time, but it’s just edits then,” Engelhart continued. “If I can, just on our corrections, get them to make a motion to accept it contingent on seeing the draft, I’ll consider it a victory.”
If that happens, the town council would then vote on whether to accept the new standards as a text amendment to town code, Engelhart said. He did not expect any issues to that end.
During the meeting the commission also reelected Chris Denny as chairman.
The Berlin Commission will meeting again on March 8 at 6 p.m. in town hall. Engelhart said that session would also include approval of a steel office building adjacent to the new Arby’s on Ocean Gateway.