The Raynham Channel

Planning Board 12/04/2025

• Raynham

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(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)

A tired mid-century plaza gets a second act—and the details matter. We walk through the full approval to bring Tractor Supply into 59 New State Highway, transforming the former Big Lots with a new facade, a relocated entrance, and carefully planned outdoor sales and trailer display areas that preserve sight lines and protect pedestrians. The conversation digs into the nuts and bolts of good site planning: right-turn-only traffic control at a busy exit, stone replacing mulch to reduce fire risk, bollards around propane, enclosed dumpsters with black metal screening, and consistent black-coated fencing that looks clean and keeps visibility high.

You’ll hear how each department’s input tightened the plan without slowing it down. Conservation signs off on a stormwater operation and maintenance plan due to the nearby river. Police get safer movements and clearer markings. Fire safety drives material choices and offsets. The landlord commits to improved lighting quality on existing poles, while we set a condition that lighting stays on-site and turns off soon after closing. We also confirm hours, address pedestrian walkways with driver-facing signage, and require crosswalks and circulation arrows to be in place before occupancy.

We then zoom out to what’s next for the town’s growth. Accessory dwelling units are accelerating, with 17 on record since February, and we’re refining the ADU bylaw to align with state guidance so projects move faster and cleaner. Meanwhile, we plan to restart work on the Route 138 mixed-use bylaw with regional support, aiming to unlock flexible, walkable development where it makes the most sense. If you care about practical planning, retail reuse, and the small design choices that add up to safer streets, this one’s for you.

Enjoy the episode, share it with a neighbor who follows local development, and subscribe so you don’t miss future updates on the ADU bylaw and Route 138 mixed-use progress. Got thoughts on fencing, lighting, or traffic flow at older plazas? Leave a review with your ideas—we read every one.

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SPEAKER_05:

This is December 4th, 2025 meeting. You can join us in person. We also have live broadcasting meeting on the Radium Channel, Comcast Channel 98, and Verizon Channel 34. 6 p.m. We call the meeting to order. First thing the minutes from our last meeting of November 6, 2025. I would entertain a motion to waive the reading and approve the minutes.

SPEAKER_03:

So moved.

SPEAKER_05:

Seconded. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. We have a public hearing on 59 East State Highway. It is a site plan. It requires four votes. We have two of our members out tonight. That leads us to three. So I entertain a motion to have our alternate Matt Andre sit in as a voting member. So move. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. We have someone for the petitioner.

SPEAKER_01:

You want to read it into the record three public, a public. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, yep, yep. Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay. Okay. The Rainham Planning Board will hold a public hearing on Thursday, December 4th, 2025. It's uh 6.01 p.m. at Rainham Veterans Memorial Town Hall, 558 South Main Street, on application for abbreviated site plan approval. Rainham allowed section 350-13.2 special permit to allow renovation of exterior and interior of building, including relocating front entrance, improving facade, repairing and restriping parking lot, adding outside sales areas, dumpsters, ballards, and loading dock, all at 59 New State Highway, Assessors Map 14, lot 234-0, Rainham, Massachusetts. Application is submitted by Gerald Cohen, President Rainham Crossing Limited Partnership. Copy of the application and plan are available for viewing at the Town Clerk's Office and Planning Board Office, 558 South Main Street Rainham, during usual scheduled business hours. Any person wishing to be heard or interested in a submittal should appear at a time and place designated.

SPEAKER_04:

Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. My name is Ed Brennan. I'm an attorney with an office of 174 Dean Street in Taunton. I represent the applicant, Rainham Crossings. With me tonight is uh Scott Rogers from Homebrew Engineering, uh Jerry Cohen, owner of uh Rainham Crossings, and Matt Darling from Tractor Supply, representing the future tenant building. What we well I think you're all familiar with the site. It's an old building that was constructed probably in 1959 or 1960 for Fernandes grocery store, uh, and it's had many uses over the years. Uh currently, uh the last tenant in this particular space, which is about 26,000 square feet with big lots. Uh, attractor supply is interested in entering into a lease for the property. In order to accomplish that, we have to make certain improvements to the property, uh, certainly all of which are a benefit to Rainhand because we're going to improve the site. Uh the interior, there'll be interior renovations made, which I'm sure the board's not really concerned with those. Uh, the exterior, there'll be a new facade and main entrance. There will be re-striping of the parking lot. There will be some new concrete pads in the back. You know, put ballards in parking spaces in particular areas and generally restripe the parking lot and improve the visibility. There will be outside storage towards the Route 44M, about 14,000 square feet of enclosed space, which they use for outside sales, and about 1,400 square feet for the sale of trailers. We met with the department heads from the town. Uh they voiced various concerns and questions, all of which we were able to address, uh, and they're all highlighted in blue on my sketch there. The uh fire department wanted us to replace any mulch with stones because mulch has caused fires and uh more than I realized. They wanted us to make sure we put bollards around the propane tank, and they want us to coordinate the alarm system and the security camera in the storage area. That part will take place during construction. So on the plan, we've shown the mulch being replaced and we've shown bollards around the propane tanks. Uh the police department wanted us to take no left-hand turn out of the exit on the east side near the bowling alley. So when you come out on that side, they wanted a right-hand turn only. So we've incorporated a sign into the site plan to satisfy the police department. CalmCom, CONCOM, we were there last night and they approved the plan. They wanted a stormwater management plan, operation plan, operation maintenance plan, and that was submitted to them last night, and the CONCOM approved the work that we want to do because we're in proximity to the river. Uh predates the River Protection Act, but we are within the 100 and 200 feet. So CONCOM entertained that last night and gave us a positive result. The water department wanted us to repair a fence along the westerly boundary, which that is shown on the plan that we will do. Board of Health just said there may be some annual permits required for the sale of uh live, you know, rabbits or chickens, or if there's any food for sale on site. So that would come post-construction. Uh so we've incorporated all of those uh requests by the town departments into the plan. Uh you can see what it will look like when we're done. We have uh attract the supply that's after the renovations are done at the front of the building with the new entrance and new facade, and down below it you can see what the existing elevation is. Is this going to affect any of the other tenants? No. The uh restaurant and boys both stay there, and there's a small nail salon on the west little west hand corner of the building. That stage. Sorry? Oh, yeah, the boys are still there. Uh it was the job lots that went out when we're going into that space. Uh so no disruption of the other tenants. We we satisfy parking, we comply with the required number of spaces. And we've satisfied CONCOM, and we've satisfied the department heads. So now we're here. I'm concerned with the parking lot. Could you show us some of your storage, storage area? I'm just orientation myself, is in the cross-tached area out front here. So even when you eliminate those spaces, you still comply with quite a number of spaces. Right under the street. It is. And what are you gonna have up there? It's a fenced in area. They have fencing, they have different uh supplies that within a fenced area. I can I can get more detail from just the back of the track of supply if it might be a report. Until then, I suspect that's another question. No, I don't have any right now.

SPEAKER_02:

Are they gonna do any work over there? Yes. They are need to get in touch with the sewer, which they have in here.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh correct. Okay. Yeah, right. Was that the media?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. So wasn't there so they're gonna need because they do have a lateral coming out of that building, and there is uh clean outside. It should all be marked.

SPEAKER_04:

We we did notice it is busy there with some easements and utilities and stuff. Yeah, one of the questions, one of the comments by the public is use caution back there because there's a lot going on. Oh, yeah. That was the water department. Uh use caution when excavating it's that's that's been hard to our attention. Oh, okay.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

It's my understanding of abbreviated site plan that you can't relocate the main entrance to the building.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh is that not that's not true. No, I don't know. That's not that's no. Part of the reason one of the one of the criteria to come in front of the board for site plan approval is a relocation of the main entrance. And in an existing building, usually it's an abbreviated site plan approval because the existing building is there. You know, we're not doing we're not doing ground-up construction.

SPEAKER_07:

So how will this interact with the garden patch on the side? They have the garden patch, the retail store. Are they gonna remain? Because I know that some of their parking, I know the guy with the garden patch van parks right where that uh enclosure is set to be. I just didn't know what type of parking they share with the garden patch. Yeah, like uh along the uh left-hand side of that parking lot. So I know the garden patch occupies that whole strip. They have like a loom pile off to the side, and then a lot of their customers park right in that that storage area. I didn't know what designated parking, if any, they had in that plaza. And then the only other thing I would recommend would be I I'm assuming that gray area that extends from the building to the storage area, that's like a walking path. Correct. From south to north? Correct. It possibly might be nice right at the curb to do one of those signage, the double the double-sided signages that says walkway, just so that people that aren't used to coming through that plaza for so many years, knowing that there's a walkway there.

SPEAKER_04:

So having that signed for drive for not for the pedestrians, but for the drivers.

SPEAKER_07:

The drivers, yeah. Just so that, because it's been there existing, no one's ever gonna, if you're not accustomed to it knowing that there's a walkway there, it might be nice to have you know a sign there that says pedestrian walking caution or something like that. Just so that the people can get accustomed to the new flow of traffic.

SPEAKER_04:

Right now, they I guess that they'd be going that way to get to their cars currently. But this is we should dress it up and put the signs in.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, just so that you know, people can get accustomed to the change of pace.

SPEAKER_04:

Right.

SPEAKER_07:

But that other than that, I would say.

SPEAKER_05:

Any new crosswalks?

SPEAKER_04:

That is cross-hatched here.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

Anything more for Mr. Brennan or want to hear from the engineer?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh can you can you speak to the sales trailer? I don't think we we discussed a sales trailer in the Benson area. Did you speak about a sales trailer outside? Or just a trailer low trailer area? Is a trailer sales area.

SPEAKER_04:

That's for the sale of trailers.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's not a a trailer where you're gonna be making sales? No, right. Okay, all right. Just wanted to confirm that.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, that's that and that's yeah, that's for someone. We're gonna start trailers there if someone's interested in buying a utility trailer.

SPEAKER_01:

And so it's a 10-foot high fence. So you're gonna be able to maintain a minimum of 10 feet off the roadway so that you don't impact any line of sight? Yeah, no issue. You're good with that? And uh you're not you're not putting any slats in in this fence? You're gonna be able to see through the fence, it's gonna be four four-inch chain length.

SPEAKER_05:

That's our preference. What the town wants is the four thing.

SPEAKER_01:

So I would say this, I mean it's up to the board, but I would say the screening would be more detrimental, especially when you're up against the roadway. Yeah, we're gonna be. If you were off the roadway, I'd say screening would be appropriate, but I don't think in this circumstance it would be appropriate.

SPEAKER_07:

Is it galvanized or black?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh it's galvanized.

SPEAKER_07:

No barbed wire at the top? No.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_07:

Black would be super.

SPEAKER_01:

You can choose your color, I guess.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, I I'm I'm I'm more you know, of a black fence. It just doesn't stand out as much, especially by the street. Um especially if you're doing the parking lot over, it might blend in nicer, but you can see you'll code the parking lot before you strike it.

SPEAKER_02:

Um black sounds fine with you guys.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

It's yeah, it's virtually just yeah, it just looks clean from the other road stuff. Yeah. I mean you guys saw it, so I guess. Yeah. We haven't had a problem.

SPEAKER_04:

No, no, no, no. No, no, we should write down the checklist with fine.

SPEAKER_07:

The hours haven't changed outside of what the big lots were, I'm assuming, correct?

SPEAKER_04:

I don't know what they were.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, what they're left out. Our fire supply hours are basically uh 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Sunday before we have a lot of people. Matt, would you mind? Yeah, okay, sorry. Yeah. Uh my name is Matt Darby. I'm actually an independent consultant for track supply. I've I've developed stores for them for the past 20 years. Um so the the the the question I think was um but we we talked about the fencing fence, no problem. The the the trailers that we talked about uh are just low landscaping trailers. They're they're not box trailers. Um and heaven helped me, the reason why I come up here to answer a question I've already. Oh, yeah, thank you. The hours of operation are basically 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. They oftentimes close around 7 p.m. on Sundays, but you know, as any business needs some flexibility within that time to be able to open or close as their customers choose to come shop at their store. So if there's uh momentus flexibility within that time range, there shouldn't be any problem. Um not a not really a residential area, but it does come up, you know, their their parking lot lights, you know. Well, actually, here is shopping center, but uh their their store lights will turn off around uh half an hour after the store closes, sometimes 45 minutes, give or take. If it was an independent store, that the parking lot lights would turn off a little earlier too, but your shopping center is a little different situation.

SPEAKER_05:

Um, there's going to be any more lights currently available. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't think we'll probably enhance the uh lighting on this. Could you come up to the on the existing pole? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06:

Jerry Cohen from uh Random Crossing. Um we've enhanced the lighting, and if it's not completed, it will be completed with the existing poles.

SPEAKER_05:

Enhance.

SPEAKER_06:

Improve the quality of the uh lighting. Brighter lights out into the street or down the parking lot. Just in the parking lot.

SPEAKER_01:

Any other questions for me?

SPEAKER_07:

No.

SPEAKER_01:

You want to address the lighting as a condition of approval?

SPEAKER_05:

Um I think so. I think we should do that all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh I will I will like to bring something up to the attention of the of Jerry. Um you had a fire there about a year and a half or two years ago now, and at that time the fire department asked you to remove the mulch. Mulch is still there. They're very um very unhappy that it's still there, so maybe you can work on that in the next couple of days.

SPEAKER_04:

That's all I have.

SPEAKER_05:

And I understand you've had a chance to review them. I have. Installation of fenced areas shall be a minimum of ten feet from the roadway curving and shall not impede the lines of sight existing on the property. Chain link fence shall be see-through, no barbed wire shall be installed without proper approval from CBA. No snow storage to be allowed between the building and the fenced area. All snow to be removed and relocated to an appropriate location. Any parking spots adjacent to the building shall have a protected following installed. All mulch beds along the entire front of the building shall be removed and replaced with a non-combustible material. All state and local permitting shall be in place before any construction renovation work shall commence. Circulation arrows shall designate proper traffic flow shall be in place and parking lot completely restriped before the temporary or final occupancy permit is issued. All signage shall meet the requirements of section 350-6.6 of the rain and zoning bylaw. All dumpsters shall be fully enclosed and screened by metal fencing.

SPEAKER_01:

And um how do we want to word the lighting? Uh all parking lot lighting shall not uh shall stay on the property, not cast onto adjacent properties.

SPEAKER_05:

That's a good one.

SPEAKER_03:

Anything else for them? Should we change the last one? No, not the lighting one, the metal fencing to just include like black metal fencing.

SPEAKER_01:

So what's your language?

SPEAKER_03:

All dumpsters shall be fully enclosed and screened by black metal fencing. And then should also say that. Black channel fence, yeah, or one and two.

SPEAKER_07:

So just doing a separate line. I mean, just say all fencing used on the property to be coded in black. That would encompass an enclosed area in the dumb sense.

SPEAKER_05:

Can we do slightly more?

SPEAKER_06:

I know. Oh, alright.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

So you can uh vote to approve the s uh previous site plan with those conditions if you like.

SPEAKER_05:

So it entertain such a motion to approve the Rainham Crossing LTD Partnership Site Plan by JK Holmbrin Engineering LLC. Dated November 5, 2025. Subject to the conditions that I have read in with the two small changes to black fencing and the lighting issue. So move discussion. Nope.

SPEAKER_07:

Also, I just remembered too if we can put um where the circulation arrows in addition to signage for crosswalk.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay. That's an additional.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, thank you. I just don't know what I'm saying. Sorry.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, okay. Yeah, it's not optional.

SPEAKER_01:

So we don't have a peer review fee. No, we paid we submitted$1,000, but it wasn't used. Okay, so we can we we can give that back to you at some point.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay. If it takes a vote of the board, I'd like to get that vote to I can waive waive the peer review fee that we file. You don't need any peer review at all?

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Well, we want to take care of this for us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, I said I'd entertain a motion. I think I got a motion. Did I get a second? Second. Any further discussion on the site plan? Hearing none all in favor? Aye. And uh a peer review fee was paid by the applicant. I understand it's not going to be needed, so I make a motion. Excuse me, I entertain a motion to return the peer review fee to the applicant. All rules. Hearing none, all in favor.

SPEAKER_04:

Thank you very much, General. Thank you.

unknown:

Stay warm. You're not the biggest engine, I've got my job. I thought that worked right. Oh, that's that wrong. Thank you. Well, I guess take another word.

SPEAKER_01:

It'd be a good location.

SPEAKER_05:

General business, invoices bills payable. We had one went in your direction. Um we got three signatures, that's what we need. So tomorrow ring with that. Old business, new business.

SPEAKER_03:

That's a 2%.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And we have a 303 on that.

SPEAKER_01:

I'll do old business, new business, and planning reporting update at the same time. How's that? We'll get us through this. Which is uh very short. Um, I reworked the ADU bylaw that was kicked back. Uh basically just removed what the AG didn't want in the bylaw, and I sent you a clean copy of the new bylaw. Um that's basically the same language that we had. I'm not sure if you want to dig into this deeper. Um, a lot of towns don't have as much in their ADU bylaws as we do. There are some towns that have a longer bylaw. Not sure how far to take this. We're already about 17 ADUs deep since February. Uh, those are the ones on record. I'm sure there's some that we haven't put on record yet, and there's a couple in the pipeline. So I would imagine as the years go by, we're gonna be seeing 20 to 30 of these uh each year, and the number's gonna creep up. So um at some point we're gonna have to have a public hearing again, redo the bylaws, send it back to town meeting. Hopefully, we'll get it done this winter and have it ready for a spring town meeting. But I'm I'm I put it out for you guys to give me some uh some guidance as to you know what you'd like to see, what you won't like to see. The state is very lenient, as you can see, about these KDUs. Um they don't want too much restrictions put on them. So we can put all kinds of restrictions and make our bylaw 30 or 40 you know bullet points deep. It's a lot of it's gonna get kicked back. So um send me your ideas individually in an email and I'll compile them. If I don't get anything, I'm just gonna move forward with what I sent you already. Is that okay?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, fine with orchestra. Yeah. Other than that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Other than that, we we're gonna have to uh re-ignite the uh 138 mixed use bylaw uh with SERPED. I'm gonna reach out to them the next couple weeks, probably after after the holidays, because nothing happens in the next couple weeks typically, and then try to get them on an agenda where we can re-ignite that, clean up a couple of things that we add to loose ends, and put that together so that we can bring it to town meetings also.

SPEAKER_03:

Hopefully in the spring.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it'd be nice just to get it out of off the table and out of the way instead of having things in there. So yeah, so those are the two things I got for you. Other than that, um we're caught up. And uh things if things happen, I'll let you know.

SPEAKER_05:

Project review account closures. Okay, correspondence night. Planning coordinator updating surfit update, nothing tonight. Public comments and input, nothing and move plans plans to be signed. No, agree no good meeting. Anybody have anything to add? Or we've uh I just end a motion to adjourn. So moved, seconded, seconded, all in favor? Aye