Planning Board — June 3, 2026

What was decided

Nine members were present: Councilman Anbarasan, Theodore Chase, Robert LaCorte, Marc Dancy, Jennifer Rangnow, Meher Rafiq, Charles Brown, Robert Thomas and Chairman Orsini. Sami Shaban was absent.

• Ord. 4507-26 (B-I zone, warehouses) found “not inconsistent” with the Master Plan, 9-0 (motion Orsini, second Thomas): Councilman Anbarasan, Dr. Chase, Mr. LaCorte, Mr. Dancy, Ms. Rangnow, Ms. Rafiq, Vice Chair Brown, Mr. Thomas and Chairman Orsini; none against.
• Report to the Council adopted, 9-0 (motion Orsini, second Anbarasan; same roll call). The Board Attorney, Peter Vignuolo, had prepared a resolution to be the Board’s report, because the Board would not meet again before the Council’s second reading on June 9, 2026. The Council adopted the ordinance 6-3 that night; see warehouses.
• Resolutions memorialized: IONNA, LLC (PLN-26-00002), 8-0, and Odin Dhun, LLC (PLN-24-00007), 9-0.
• AP Realty Group, LLC (PLN-26-00006), a three-lot subdivision at 426 Ralph Street (R-7), with a lot-frontage variance and sidewalks on all three lots: approved 9-0.

Chairman Orsini said the Board was only judging whether the ordinance was not inconsistent with the Master Plan, was making no changes, and would not open the item to public comment. No one spoke during general public comment. Adjourned 8:32 p.m.

The consistency review

The agenda attached the ordinance and a “Tech Memo re BI Ord Master Plan Consistency 5-28-26”. The draft minutes record:

• David Glenn Roberts of Bright View Engineering, who prepared the Board’s January 2026 B-I re-examination, joined by video and was sworn in. He said his seven-page memo compares the ordinance with the goal and objectives added to the land use element, and that nothing in it is inconsistent with them. The main difference, he said, is that the Board had recommended low- and medium-intensity tiers, while the Council limited warehouses and light industry to low intensity, within one road mile of an I-287 interchange (a test the Board had proposed for medium intensity) and no closer than 500 feet to a residential zone. He said the Council’s version is “more restrictive” but “no less responsive” to the land use element’s aim to “minimize traffic, noise and air quality impacts” and “preserve the quality of life of residential zones adjacent to” the zone.
• Mark Healey, Planning Director, said a main objective was to keep warehouse trucks off streets through residential areas, and that the ordinance “furthers those objectives more so than even the recommendation in the Master Plan”. Mr. Roberts pointed to the new requirement that applicants lay out truck routes in the site plan, the access rule for higher-order streets, and the floor area ratio limit, which he said prevents splitting a parcel to build two warehouses. Chairman Orsini said the FAR was probably the most important point.
• Vice Chair Brown asked how truck routes would be enforced. Mr. Roberts said the one-road-mile rule governs location, not routes. Routes laid out at site plan review can be made conditions of approval and enforced, he said, while marked, police-enforced truck routes need the County, which has that jurisdiction. He noted the 150,000 sq. ft. size cap and the loading-dock ratios. Mr. Brown asked that the rule be revisited later with data on whether it works, citing staff capacity to monitor trucks.
• Dr. Chase said he would like to look at 250 feet rather than 500 feet from a residential zone, because the 500-foot rule keeps warehouse development out of a substantial part of the zone.
• Chairman Orsini noted that the ordinance also removes data centers as a permitted use in the zone.

Records

• Agenda (with the ordinance and the May 28, 2026 tech memo attached) · Draft minutes (attached to the August 5, 2026 agenda, where they were approved) · Packet
• Video on Granicus (1:02). Granicus publishes no captions for Franklin meetings; this page follows the draft minutes.