Agenda - Planning Commission - 01/03/2008

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(:l i I. (, December 10, 20071 Volume 1 I No. 23 rum being present." Both the DeKalb ordinance and the bylaws state that "[a] quorum shall consist of a majority of the members." Given these provisions, four members were needed to have a quo- rum, and a decision by the majority of that quorum would require at least three people's vote. Both of these conditions were present here. And nothing in the Historic Preservation Act nor the county ordinance provided that failure to have seven active members on the commission invalidated a commission decision. The trial court therefore erred as a matter of law by concluding that the commission's decision was not valid because it was not properly constituted, so the decision in that regard was reve~ed. Importantly, the appeal was only related to judgment on the issue of whether the com- mission's decision was void due to its being legally deficient; the rest of Buckler's claims were still pending before the court. Bylaw-Neighbor claims store's storage trailers are 'buildings' under town bylaw Argues long-term trailers should be subject to setback requirements Citation: Ragonese v. Manzi, 2007 WL 3194397 (Mass. Land Ct. 2007), judgment entered, 2007 WL 3170275 (Mass. Land Ct. 2007) ) MASSACHUSETTS (10/31/07)-Butcher Boy Market was a gourmet supermarket in North Andover. It stored meat and produce both inside its main building and in two cold storage trailers. Each trailer was 45 feet long, eight feet wide, and 18,000 pounds in weight and they were parked in a space 20 feet from Butcher Boy's property line, which di- rectly abutted a residential neighborhood. The trailers were kept in the same location, with almost no interrup- tion, for more than seven years. Butcher Boy apparently had no plans of ever moving the trailers except for periodic maintenance. One of the homeowners in the residential area, Ragonese, complained about noise from the trailers' compressors. The compressors ran 24 hours a day, and the noise was "loud and disturbing." Ragonese sought zoning enforcement action from the town's building inspector, seeking the removal of the trailers and contending that they were "buildings" placed illegally within the setback area. Butcher Boy countered that the trailers were not "buildings" and claimed that it was not violating any current zoning regulation. The building inspector refused to take enforcement action, and the town's zoning board of appeals upheld his decision. Ragonese appealed that decision to court. This single issue in this case was whether the two 2,500-square foot cold storage trailers that were permanently parked and receiving their electric power by permanent hookup to a retail supermarket. market "-" 9 71