001Order the meeting of the Gardener City Council and the Planning Board to order for the purpose of a joint public hearing regarding an amendment to chapter 675 of the Kota City Gardener. The joint public hearing notice reads as follows. Pursuant to general laws 40A subsection 5, notice is hereby given that the city council and planning board will conduct a joint public hearing on Monday, April 6, 2026 at 7 p.m. in the city council chamber, room 219, city hall, 95 Pleasant Street, Gardener, to consider amending chapter 675, the zoning code of the city of Gardner. The proposed amendment involves changing item 11772, an ordinance to amend the code of the city of Gardner, chapter 675, thereof entitled zoning, to remove article 9, thereof entitled signs and advertising devices, and move it to a new nonzoning chapter
002to be numbered chapter 665. Information regarding these amendments and associated maps are available for viewing in the city clerk's office, the department of community development and planning, or on the city's web page, www.gardner gardener-mma.gov. All persons interested in this matter and desire to offer testimony are invited to attend the hearing. TTCF, city clerk. The clerk will now please do a roll call. >> Councelor Brooks, >> present. >> Council Craig Cormier, >> present. >> Council General Owitz, >> present. >> Council Harder, >> present. >> Council Heath, >> present. >> Council Heg, >> present. >> Council Kazinskus, >> present. >> Council Math, >> present. Council Tone, >> Council Tibbo Munos, >> present. >> President Tyrus, >> present. >> Mr. Paul Cormier, >> present. >> Mr. Steven Cormier, >> present. >> Mr. Eric Flint, >> present. >> And
003Mr. Bob Sorts, >> present. >> Both bodies have quorum. At this time, I'd request a report from the mayor or director of community development. >> Thank you very much, Mr. President, thank you to Councelor Mack for ask inviting me to be a uh co-sponsor of this ordinance before you here today and provide the administration's uh opinion on the ordinance change that is before you here today. Uh as I said in the uh subcommittee meeting that met on this ordinance item before you. Uh there are no actual uh verbiage changes in the language that before you. the the ordinance that's before you would take the signed section of the zoning code that currently exists in chapter 675 and remove it from the zoning code and place it into a regular general ordinance of the uh city
004code. And the reason for that uh is based off of the feedback that we've received from several different businesses who have been looking at opening businesses here in Gardener who have opened businesses here in Gardener and talking about the different regulations around signage for the businesses that they have and how that's really stunted, stalled or added costs to the developments as they've tried to open up here in Gardener. Uh, as we know through the process that we're currently going through right now, the process of amending a zoning ordinance is designed to be drawn out because you're looking for increased public input. You're looking for increased uh feedback, but at the same time, you need to balance the public good of getting that, you know, feedback in a longer period of time versus the experience that's
005on the ground being happened with the businesses that we have at the moment. And when you balance those to get the greater public good that we have in the end of basically trying to get more businesses in here because it does help us financially. It does help our residents here find ways to stay here uh to work, live and play here. Something as simple as putting a sign on a business to advertise that business can really make or break a project during its balance sheet phase uh or make someone realize that a business is even there and help that business last longer. Uh and I'll give you a couple of examples as to what really brought this to life. Um, back in the 2010s, uh, when Tiffany Crossroads first opened, the 99 restaurant had its,
006uh, groundbreaking in 2018. So, we're going back around that time frame. Uh, Tiffany Crossroads ran into a lot of issues with the dimensions that have honestly not been updated uh, for quite some time for the dimensions of the signage into the plaza, the dimensions of the signage that could go on the buildings uh, for the businesses that were there. uh adding uh some extra time for cost with engineering, cost with design work, cost with the sign companies to rework the signage that had to be done both for the entrance in and out of the plaza itself. Uh the signs that could be visible to advertise for the plaza uh and the signs that could go on the businesses that are there. Uh you go back a little bit before that in the 2015 2016 uh
007time frame, we had the uh Bank of America uh kiosk that was put in at the Price Chopper lot and the way that the signage around the Bank of America kiosk could go. Uh then in the 2020s, we launched our side and facade improvement grant program that we did through the American Rescue Plan funds. We ended up having to advertise that we had that sign grant a lot more than we had to do the facade grants. And the reason being for that is uh the feedback we were getting in real time from property owners in the city because the property owners had to be the one to sign off on both the sign and the facade applications was that it was easier under zoning to update the facades to make the buildings look good than
008it was to deal with the sign regulations that we had and the review process and everything that had to go with that. It made it so that we uh went through the facade money that was about four or five times more than what we had set aside for sign money in about a month, month and a half where it took us two years to go through the sign improvement program where businesses we offered uh 2 uh $2,500 per sign to help uh advertise for a business. And we ended up having money left over in the account that got turned back to the federal government because we did not have people who were interested in that program with the biggest feedback being like, I'd love to do it. I really need a new sign. I just
009can't go through the process that was there. Uh that we saw with businesses that wanted to do perpendicular signage downtown rather than just uh parallel to the road. We saw that with businesses that were looking at uh doing illuminated signs and have signs that had some type of light on the back that wouldn't be on all night but just have some type of light that's currently prohibited uh under the current zoning code because you can't have certain illuminations on a sign after a certain time frame but the businesses end up staying open past that. So they had to go to the old sign where the light shown on the sign rather than the sign itself being lit. There were uh Sawa uh Asian Beastro that uh just opened over on West Broadway was three inches
010over what the zoning code allowed uh and had either had to spend money to order a new sign, had to go through a variance process where they had to hire an attorney and spend money that way or just saw the sign 3 in off but that would ruin the lettering uh that was on the sign process that was there. So the sign ended up being almost a year after it was uh ordered before it was eventually hung up again. And the regulations are there for a reason. I don't think anyone thinks that we should get rid of all regulations when it comes to signage around the city because the the ordinance is there for a reason and we want to make sure things look clean and look good and are done the right way. But
011that doesn't mean that we're operating in the best gardener open for business atmosphere. And by moving this from the zoning code into the general code, it allows for a easier turnaround time that we can take that live feedback that we're getting from these businesses and in some cases a reason why some businesses don't choose to come to gardener because if you can't properly advertise for your business, why would you open your business? And making it so that we can update that in real time so we can be more willing to work with people on a more timely basis. There's still opportunities for public feedback as this would still have to go through the regular legislative process if it was to be changed. Uh there would still be opportunities for public input in that uh this
012would still be a public meeting whether it be before uh standing committee, the city council uh the opportunity to uh contact either the mayor's office or counselors throughout a process for uh input that way. It just makes it so that it's a more uh flexible way of updating the sign code that we have here in the city to make it so that uh we really are uh being amendable to the business community that is taking an interest in gardener but has slowed over recent years and this based off of the feedback that we've been getting as that slowing has happened. This is one of the main things that comes up in almost every conversation that we've had. So I'm happy to answer any further questions uh that people may have on the matter or uh
013uh take any feedback to. Thank you. Thank you, >> Mr. Mayor. I declare the public hearing open and ask councilors or planning board members to hold their questions until citizens have had the opportunity to speak. Does anyone wish to be heard in favor of the proposed zoning amendment? Does anyone wish to be heard in favor of the proposed zoning amendment? Does anyone wish to be heard in favor of the proposed zoning amendment? Does anyone wish to be heard in opposition of the proposed zoning amendment? Does anyone wish to be heard in opposition of the proposed zoning amendment? Does anyone wish to be heard in opposition proposed zoning amendment? Are there any questions or comments from counselors or planning board members? >> Council Mac. >> Thank you. Um, as the, uh, co-sponsor of this um, ordinance
014with the mayor, um, I just want to highlight again that I think in a lot of different ways, city hall is be trying to become more businessfriendly. Uh, we are trying to, uh, streamline the permit process. Um, and by doing this, we need to focus and make city hall much more supportive to businesses and not uh, resist or become a hindrance. Thank you. >> Thank you, counselor. Does anyone else wish to be heard on the matter? I declare the joint public hearing closed. Thank you.