ROCKPORT — The Rockport Chamber Music Festival will have to wait until April 1 to find out if selectmen will recommend a zoning bylaw change the nonprofit group has proposed.
On April 5, Town Meeting will vote on the creation of a Cultural Overlay District that would include the lots along Main Street between Dock Square and the intersection of Main and Beach streets. If approved by a two-thirds majority, construction of the Shalin Liu Performance Center at 37 Main St. could begin as soon as Oct. 1, said festival Chairman Thomas Burger.
Festival officials believe if the zoning change is approved, the festival will not need the variance granted by the Zoning Board of Appeals last year. The appeals board's reasons for granting the variance and several special permits are at the center of a lawsuit against the festival and the appeals board brought by abutters Gary and Marcia Puryear.
Both Burger and Gary Puryear attended the selectmen's meeting Tuesday.
Burger said the festival would not have had to appear before selectmen Tuesday if not for the lawsuit, which he said came at the 11th hour, after the festival had already received all necessary town permits.
Burger admits proving the festival's case in court would be "difficult," leading festival officials to pursue a legislative remedy through the proposed development of the Cultural Overlay District.
"It's a minimally invasive way of doing it without getting caught up in spot zoning," Burger said of the proposed district.
Puryear, who watched the Planning Board vote unanimously to recommend the proposal to Town Meeting at its public hearing last month, wants Town Meeting to send the warrant article back "for a much more comprehensive review."
"The proposal to amend the zoning bylaws of the town to create a Cultural Overlay District is not sound planning for Rockport," said Puryear, a municipal planning and design consultant. "Sound planning and Massachusetts law requires more than simply conducting a single Planning Board hearing to see if the residents and taxpayers have any questions."
Puryear said the state Attorney General's office, which must approve such zoning changes within 90 days of approval, would consider the proposed district to be spot zoning.
However, Burger countered it is not spot zoning, and would apply to 26 lots facing Main Street. Of those, only 10 meet the 5,000 square-foot minimum size for use as a cultural center as proposed in the zoning change and include the festival building, two apartment buildings, the old parsonage, a Rockport National Bank branch, First Congregational Church, and two buildings owned by the Rockport Art Association.
Puryear, in a prepared statement given to selectmen, said the Planning Board made no attempt to hire a professional planning consultant to fully study the town's planning and economic needs.
"Successful rezoning plans require extensive working sessions with all stakeholders in a community," he said.
Puryear was also critical of what he described as a lack of proper parking and traffic studies.
"The town has for many years struggled with providing adequate parking," Puryear said. "The only existing approach has been to use the summer shuttle bus. At the present time, the town has no other plan to deal with downtown traffic and parking. To date, there have been no traffic studies."
Burger contended, in fact, there has been a parking study done.
Last Labor Day weekend the festival conducted a parking study. In that study, the festival determined about 30 extra cars would be entering Rockport on the days of a festival performance as opposed to a day when the Rockport Art Association hosted an event. The association has an occupancy of 242, while the Shalin Liu Performance Center would seat 325.
Burger said if the Art Association suffered a fire, it would be in the same bind as the festival upon trying to rebuild in the district under current zoning bylaws.
Under current zoning, new structures must conform to significant setback and minimum lot size requirements.
Puryear, a Concord resident for much of the year, was not the only one to speak out against the zoning change.
Darby Lane resident Ruth Main asked selectmen if they were willing to allow a cultural zone in the downtown district without first investigating independent studies, while Granite Street resident Toby Arsenian brought up inconsistencies with the festival's proposed parking arrangements.
Town Administrator Michael Racicot said yesterday that Puryear's four-page statement to selectmen would be considered before a decision is made.
"We'll review it," Racicot said. "It will be factored in as one more item in the selectmen's decision on the zoning change."
Puryear's attorney, Philip Posner, said last month the bylaw change would not terminate litigation.
"I trust that once the whole story is told, the Town Meeting will be disinclined to vote in the zoning change in any event," Posner said.
Selectmen will make their recommendations on articles appearing in the town warrant at their regularly scheduled meeting, Tuesday, April 1.
"We've heard the potential benefits to the town," Selectmen Chairman Joseph Lisi said Tuesday. "If properly done, the (performance) center could be a tremendous benefit to this community."
Jonathan L'Ecuyer can be reached at jlecuyer@gloucestertimes.com.
