By Kim Siebert MacPhail
Planning Director Glenn Garber announced on Wednesday night that “a specific restaurant has been green-lighted and OK’d” to move into the former Friendly’s location on Great Road at Great Road Shopping Center. At the present time, the identity of the restaurant is “hyper confidential,”however, Garber did hint that it is a chain, but “not a fast food place in the usual sense.” The restaurant has signaled that it will file for a special permit in order to have outdoor seating.
The business is working with an architect who will redesign the façade so that it will no longer look like a Friendly’s. Garber said that the total seating capacity for the restaurant will be about 60 and that the new owner will only use 2/3 of the footprint, leaving room either for storage or for a small, separate retail space.
Garber said that he, his assistant Catherine Perry and Code Enforcement Officer Chris Laskey have combed through the bylaws to make sure that the new restaurant will meet all standards without a site plan review. This means that the business will not have to come before the Planning Board and makes the Zoning Board of Appeals the only permit-granting authority necessary in the deal.
The chain plans to use the same parking and the same site entrances and exits as the former tenant.
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Jeffrey, I apologize. My last comment referred to another Planning Board article I was working at the time.
My point is the same though: it’s not a violation. The people listed are staff members, not elected officials. Their conversations are not subject to open meeting laws.
It’s the Planning Office and the applicant. There’s no violation of the open meeting law.
this sounds counter to the Mass open meeting law. https://www.dukescounty.org/Pages/DukesCountyMA_Commissioners/MA%20Open%20Meeting%20Law.pdf