Brida Realty, LLC v. Planning Board

15 Mass. L. Rptr. 468
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedNovember 1, 2002
DocketNo. 995920
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 15 Mass. L. Rptr. 468 (Brida Realty, LLC v. Planning Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brida Realty, LLC v. Planning Board, 15 Mass. L. Rptr. 468 (Mass. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

Graham, J.

The Plaintiff, Brida Realty, LLC (“Brida”), has brought this action, pursuant to G.L.c. 40A, §17, seeking judicial review of the Planning Board of the Town of Holliston’s (“Planning Board”) grant of a special permit to the defendant, Cumberland Farms, Inc. (“Cumberland”). This matter is now before the Court on Cumberland’s motion for summary judgment, pursuant to Mass.R.Civ.P. 56(c) and Brida’s cross motion for summary judgment. For the following reasons, the parties’ cross motions for summary judgment are DENIED in part, GRANTED in part, and REMANDED in part.

FACTS

The following facts are undisputed.

1. The Plaintiff, Brida, is a Massachusetts Limited Liability Company with a usual place of business at 74 West Central Street, Natick, MA.

2. The Defendant, Cumberland, is a Delaware corporation, and is duly authorized to do business within the Commonwealth and maintains a place of business in Canton, Massachusetts.

3. Defendant, Planning Board and its individual members, at all times relevant hereto comprise the duly constituted Planning Board for the Town of Holliston, a municipal corporation in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

4. Cumberland owns property located at 425 Washington Street, Holliston, MA (the “Cumberland property”). At all times relevant hereto Cumberland has operated a convenience store on its property.

5. Brida owns property located at 429 Washington Street, Holliston, MA (the “Brida property”). The Brida property abuts the Cumberland property.

6. Both the Cumberland property and the Brida property are zoned “commercial” under the Town of Holliston Zoning Bylaws (the “Bylaws”). No residential use is made of either property.

7. Pursuant to a written commercial lease dated January 1, 1997, the Brida property is leased to Holliston Petroleum.

8. Holliston Petroleum has in turn sublet the premises to the Holliston Elias Corporation (the “Brida sub-tenant”).

9. The Brida sub-tenant operates a gas station on the Brida property under the name “Holliston Texaco.”

10. In connection with the operation of the gasoline station on the Brida property, Brida’s sub-tenant periodically receives gasoline refueling from gasoline tanker trucks.

11. The Brida property and Cumberland property share a driveway, which provides access to Washington Street.

12. There is a “crossing pattern” along the shared driveway, in which vehicles leaving the Cumberland property drive across Brida’s property and vice versa.

13. On or about April 13, 1999, Cumberland applied to the Planning Board for a special permit under Section Ill-Use Regulations, T33a of the Bylaws and for site plan approval to renovate the existing convenience store, demolish an existing video store and construct and operate a self-service gasoline station on the Cumberland property (the “project”).

14. Cumberland proposed to install a gasoline station consisting of four gasoline pumps, three underground storage tanks with a capacity of24,000 gallons of gasoline, and a canopy, lights and other related equipment.

15. It proposed to meet the Bylaw’s requirement for 16 parking spaces by providing for eight challenged spaces around the gasoline pump island, 14 unchallenged spaces, and two spaces that are blocked in whole or in part by other spaces.

16. Cumberland’s proposed parking space number 11 is located perpendicular to parking space number 12, so that the southerly end of space 12 forms part of the westerly end of space 11. Parking space number 11 is a standard space perpendicular to the aisle parking space. It is one space in a row of spaces. Space 12 is a parallel parking space. It is perpendicular to the parking aisle and is tucked in between the last perpendicular space and the dumpster. Both ends of space 12 are blocked, with maneuvering space cut off by the end of the paving in front of the dumpster. If parking space 11 is occupied, a vehicle wishing to park in space 12 cannot park in that space except with difficulty and excessive maneuvering.

17. Parking space number 16 is a “stacked” parking space, requiring a person to remove a vehicle from space number 15 in order to remove a vehicle from space 16.

[469]*46918. The project will cause an increase in traffic in and around the Cumberland and Brida properties.

19. The increased traffic will cause increased conflicts among vehicles using the shared driveway. According to Cumberland’s expert, the major conflict will be between vehicles turning left going onto the Cumberland property and vehicles turning right into the Brida driveway, with the result that one car will have to wait for the other.

20. The addition of gasoline service will incrementally increase traffic volumes at the Cumberland property during rush hour.

21. The Planning Board convened the combined Site Plan and Special Permit public hearing on June 10, 1999. The hearing was continued and re-convened on each of the following dates and times: July 22, 1999 at 9:00 P.M., September 23, 1999 at 8:00 P.M., November 4, 1999 at 9:30 P.M. and November 10, 1999 at 7:30 P.M. Brida attended each hearing and opposed the proposed project.

22. At the close of the public hearing on November 10,1999, the Planning Board voted five to zero to grant Cumberland a special permit under Section III of the Bylaws. Section III of the Bylaws allows the operation of a self-service gasoline station in a commercial district pursuant to a special permit.

23. On or about December 6, 1999, Brida commenced this action pursuant to G.L.c. 40A, §17, seeking judicial review of the Planning Board’s grant of the special permit to Cumberland.

RULINGS AND DECISION

I. Standing

Under G.L.c. 40A, §17, a party’s status as an “aggrieved person” is a jurisdictional prerequisite to judicial review of a decision by a zoning board of appeals. Marashlian v. Zoning Board of Appeals of Newburyport, 421 Mass. 719, 721 (1996). A plaintiff who plausibly claims that he or she will sustain some harm as .a proximate result of the challenged zoning decision is “aggrieved” for purposes of standing. See Boston Edison Co. v. Boston Redevelopment Auth., 374 Mass. 37, 46 (1977); Marashlian, 421 Mass. 719, 721 (1996) (“person aggrieved” shall not be construed narrowly). Under G.L.c. 40A, §17, “abutters . . . enjoy a rebuttable presumption [that] they are ‘persons aggrieved.’ ” Id. Because Brida’s property abuts Cumberland’s property, the presumption of standing attaches unless and until Cumberland offers evidence supporting its challenge to the plaintiffs standing. Watros v. Greater Lynn Mental Health & Retardation Ass’n, Inc., 421 Mass. 106, 111 (1996).

Cumberland concedes that the proposed project would increase traffic in and around the Cumberland and Brida properties, but counters that Brida’s concerns about increased traffic in and around the properties are not sufficiently “special or different from the concerns of the rest of the community” to warrant standing. Bell v. Zoning Board of Appeals of Gloucester, 429 Mass. 551, 554 (1999).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
15 Mass. L. Rptr. 468, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brida-realty-llc-v-planning-board-masssuperct-2002.