Comprehensive Patriot Place Review

Committee Meeting

Minutes of November 6, 2006

 

Chairman Mark Sullivan opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. 

 

Members present: John Michelmore, Arthur Barrett, Neil Forster, Bert Delaney, and (alternates) Arthur Muldoon and Mary Ann Baker.  Bill Buckley and Tony LaChapelle were excused.  Paul Feeney arrived late having been asked to attend the Planning Board meeting that evening by Chairman Sullivan; that meeting was postponed.

 

During the Chairman’s remarks he mentioned that the next meeting will be held on November 13th, and inquired if anyone had a problem attending due to possible Veterans Day observance.  All were in agreement to meet Monday the 13th at the scheduled time.  He also noted the letter from Nancy Campany which was distributed to the board. 

 

Bert Delaney made note of two corrections he’d like made to the October 30th minutes.  The minutes from the October 30th meeting were so updated.  The minutes were approved upon motion by Bert Delaney, seconded by Arthur Barrett and approved by all.

 

Bill Casbarra, Building Commissioner, was introduced and informed the group of what he has been told are prospective tenants of Patriot Place as well as their potential locations on the map provided to the committee.  The following are the structures so identified.

 

Bass Pro has purchased the Morse Cranberry Boggs and a wildlife sanctuary is planned.  The Town did have the first right to purchase the property but, declined.  Mr. Casbarra believes this property was purchased solely as a buffer for the building and will remain essentially undisturbed.

 

A 200 room hotel will be built beside the Bass Pro Shop, this will be located on the “South Plaza”.  Also a Christmas Tree Shoppe as well as a Bath & Beyond planned for this area.  This will be Phase one of the construction.

 

The “North Plaza”, located between the Stadium and Washington Street; contemplates an ESPN Sports Center, with a museum and broadcasting booth as well as an NFL Experience museum.  To the right will be a cinema, and to the left will be a therapy center.

 

Bert Delaney questioned Mr. Casbarra as to the impact of the project on the Building Commissioners office.  Bill explained that this will make a substantial increase in workload for he and his staff not even considering all the other town projects coming up.  He has proposed to hire another part time certified Building Inspector during the construction phase.  Additional secretarial help will be needed, perhaps hiring a part time secretary from the Town Hall.  Permit fees should help cover these individuals.  The permit fees will be submitted into a revolving account which will be used to pay for the additional staff.

 

Bill Casbarra reminded the board that the Bass Pro Shop permits alone carry a very large dollar value.  He also informed the group that the Patriots will supply the town with an on site field office.  The bulk of the impact for the department employees will be felt during the “Fit Outs” phase.  Once the project is completed, it will require only the normal annual inspections of the assembly areas and restaurants.  Bill did not think that he would need a third full time inspector for this.

 

John Michelmore questioned Mr. Casbarra as to any need for additional electrical, or gas/plumbing inspectors.  Bill is investigating this need, we have assistants available, we were fine during the construction of the stadium, and can always get alternate inspectors from other towns.

 

Mr. Casbarra made note of another concern, the fact that our town website is not sufficient.  He receives calls from project managers all over the country on a daily basis who are inquiring about our codes, etc.  A website from which folks could down load the information would significantly eliminate man hours spent on copying and sending out packages to these inquirers. Neil Forster volunteered to work with the Town’s IT department to help Bill. 

 

In closing Mr. Casbarra, reminded the board that this is a large project, and that a team of negotiators is the best thing for the Town.  The Kraft organization wants to negotiate, however, they will not meet with individual town departments.  A negotiation team would be best for everyone involved.  He is concerned about the future impact on Route One this needs to be taken into account.

 

Bert Delaney stated that he is more concerned than ever with the infrastructure.  The town taxpayers should not be liable for any improvements to roads, etc, that will benefit this project in the end.  This committee needs to prioritize what needs to be done with mitigations for the negotiations.  Mark Sullivan informed the group that next weeks agenda will have this as an action item.

 

Bert Delaney quoted from Nancy Campany’s letter and motioned that her letter be submitted to the minutes, seconded by Mark Sullivan, all were in favor.  This is attached.

 

James Thrasher asked the committee to draft suggested legislation for additional liquor licenses for attachment to the warrant for the town meeting in March.  At this point the Patriots are looking for 14 licenses and four are being requested for the new Chestnut Green developers.

 

Bert Delaney questioned Mr. Thrasher on the benefits to the town for requesting more liquor licenses for this project.  Mr. Thrasher made it clear that in order to take the burden off the individual taxpayer, the town must grow.  Job growth and tax growth is important to the town and it’s taxpayers.  The net result will be positive, we don’t have much to leverage with other than the liquor licenses.  The Town gave a lot up during the agreement with the Kraft organization in 1999.  The town was once looked at as an industrial town (The Foxboro Company) however, it has now become imperative that we look to commercial development for supplementing the town tax income.

 

CITIZEN INPUT

 

Karen Wheatley questioned the number of licenses, she believes that it is incredibly excessive and wanted to hear from Chief O’Leary as to his concerns.  Mark Sullivan informed attendees that the Police Department will be presenting their impact statement at a committee’s future meeting.

 

Tom Paluzzi inquired about the time line; the response was that Planning board approval would probably be about 2/07 and ground breaking around March 07.

 

Lee Ann Coates expressed her concern for the 14 liquor licenses.

 

Erin Walter questioned whether the Town had any leverage other than the liquor licenses.  Neil Forster stated the licenses may not be quite so important as first thought, but felt sure that the Kraft organization would like good Public Relations preferring not to see this in any way show a bad light on them.  Also, Neil believes that mitigation, supported by hard work by all to generate a firm and factual basis is the other thing we have, and including perhaps additional amounts and infrastructure arising from an economic impact study, etc., as long as it is a reasonable request.

 

Lisa Pothier asked the board what they would recommend to get the word out from the residents of Beach Street and they’re concerns.  Bert Delaney responded coming out to this meeting as well as attending the Board of Selectmen’s meetings on Tuesday night.  Bert also made note that the Patriots are big on PR and you need to voice your concerns. Lisa questioned why there wasn’t a reporter from the Foxboro Reporter present at these meetings.  Mark informed the group that he has approached the Reporter and asked for coverage.  Cable coverage is not an option as the Cable team is live for the Planning Board Meetings. 

 

Rosemarie Kelleher asked why this meeting wasn’t being attended by a representative from the Kraft organization.  Mark Sullivan stated that he suspected there were folks taking notes for the organization, but were not there to reply to any communications.  Mark also informed the committee that he will be meeting with the Kraft organization within the week.

 

Savino Costa asked if there was any way to amend the zoning that was agreed upon in 1999.  John Michelmore replied that the legislature cannot be amended, however, he will investigate the possibility of the “Overlay District”.

 

Jim DeVellis reminded that the impact studies back in the 1999 agreement were provided by the Kraft Organization.  We need to be sure that we have another consultant give us an impact statement for this new venture.  Neil Forster informed the group that Town is accepting applications for just that. 

 

Leonard Lyons expressed his concerns with the traffic flow on Beach Street.  He stated that the traffic plan in the ’99 agreement is not being adhered to, that is the Town was told that once the Access Road was opened it would virtually stop the traffic on Beach Street.  This has not happened, and someone needs to bring this fact up.  He would like to see more speed limit signs, etc on Beach Street.

 

Nancy Campany would like to see residential signs as part of the conditions.  Signs that state No Access to Stadium, etc.  Signs such as these are visible on streets leading to the Emerald Square Mall as well as on a street behind the Walpole Mall.

 

Motion to adjourn by Mark Sullivan, seconded by Arthur Barrett, all in favor.

 

 

Meeting was adjourned at 9:10 p.m.

 

Submitted by,

 

Lynda Walsh

 

 

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