USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > Town annual report of Saugus 1927 > Part 9
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(g) An Accessory Use or Building : A use of land or a building customarily incident to and located on the same lot with another use of land or a building.
(h) A Non-Conforming Use or Building : An existing use of land or a building which does not conform to the regulations for the district in which such use of land or building exists.
(i) A Lot : A lot is that area of land described in the application for a permit.
Height : The height of a building is the vertical distance measured from the finished grade of the lot at the building to the mean height of the roof.
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USE REGULATIONS
SECTION 3. For the purpose of this by-law, the Town of Saugus is divided into four types of districts designated as :
I. Single Residence Districts.
2. General Residence Districts.
3. Apartment and Business Districts.
4.
Industrial Districts.
Said districts are as shown, defined and bounded on the map accompanying this by-law entitled, The Zoning Map of Saugus, dated March, 1927, signed by the Planning Board and on file with the Town Clerk, and said map and all explanatory matter thereon are hereby made a part of this by-law.
SECTION 4. Single Residence Districts. In single residence districts, subject to the provisions of Sections thirteen and fourteen, no new building or structure and no alteration, enlarge- ment or extension of an existing building or structure shall be designed, arranged and / or constructed, and no land, building, structure, or parts thereof shall be used, except for one or more of the following purposes :
I. One family detached and semi-detached houses.
2. The taking of boarders or the leasing of rooms by a family resident on the premises.
3. Churches, schools, public libraries, public museums, parish houses, and, subject to the provisions of Section seventeen, the following : cemeteries, hospitals, sanitoria, and philan- thropic institutions.
4. Private clubs not conducted for profit.
5. Parks, playgrounds, municipal or church recreation buildings, water towers and reservoirs.
6. Farms, greenhouses, nurseries, and truck gardens, and the sale of produce raised on the premises, under conditions prescribed by the building inspector and the selectmen.
7. Real estate signs, of not over six square feet in area, advertising the sale or rental of only the premises on which they are located, and bulletin boards accessory to uses specified in 3 and 5 of this section.
8. Passenger stations.
9. Telephone exchanges, provided that there are no service yards and that the design of the building is approved in writing by the planning board.
10. Such accessory uses as are customarily incidental to any of the above uses, subject to the provisions of Section thirteen.
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SECTION 5. General Residence Districts. In General Residence Districts, subject to the provisions of Sections thirteen and fourteen, no new building or structure and no alteration, enlargement or extension of an existing building or structure shall be designed, arranged and/or constructed, and no land, building, structure or parts thereof shall be used except for one . or more of the following purposes :
I. Any purpose enumerated in Section four, subject as stated, in Section four, to the provisions of Section seventeen.
2. Two-family dwellings.
SECTION 6. Business Districts. In business districts, sub - ject to the provisions of Sections thirteen and fourteen, no new building or structure, and no alteration, enlargement or ex- tension of an existing building or structure shall be designed, arranged and/or constructed, and no land, building, structure, or parts, thereof, shall be used except for one or more of the following purposes :
I. Any purpose enumerated in Sections four and five.
2. Retail stores and shops for custom work or the making of articles to be sold at retail on the premises and apartments.
3. Manufacturing clearly incidental to a retail business law- fully conducted on the premises shall be permitted in a business district, omitting all that is in any way offensive, a nuisance or hazardous.
4. Business or professional offices and banks.
5. Restaurants and other places for serving food, and hotels.
6. Place of business of a baker, barber, caterer, clothes cleaner and prèsser, confectioner, decorator, dressmaker, dyer, electrician, florist, furrier, hair dresser, hand laundry, manicur- ist, milliner, news-dealer, optician, painter, paper-hanger, pho- tographer, printer, publisher, shoemaker, shoe repairer, shoe shiner, tailor, upholsterer ; and, as provided in Section seventeen, the following : blacksmith, builder, carpenter, contractor, mason, plumber, roofer, tinsmith, upholsterer, undertaker, and any use which the Selectmen, after a hearing as provided in Section seventeen, may decide to be of like nature to any of the above and no more injurious to the district where it seeks to go.
7. Theatres, moving picture shows, bowling alleys, skating rinks, billiard rooms and similar commercial amusement places, subject to the provisions of Section seventeen.
8. Gasoline and oil stations, garages for storage and repair, salesrooms, for motor vehicles and stables, subject to the pro- visions of Sections sixteen and seventeen.
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9.
Billboards as regulated by law and by-laws.
SECTION 7. Industrial Districts. In industrial districts, subject to the provisions of Sections thirteen and fourteen, no new building or structure and no alteration, enlargment or extension of an existing building or structure shall be designed, arranged and/or constructed, and no land, building, structure or parts thereof shall be used except for one or more of the follow- ing purposes :
I. Any purpose permitted under Sections four, five, six and seven, subject to the provisions of Section sixteen.
2. Building material, fuel, feed and ice establishments, con- tractors' yards and junk yards, subject to the provisions of Section seventeen.
3. Light manufacturing, employing electricity and/or other unobjectionable motive power, utilizing hand labor and/or unobjectionable machinery and/or processes and free from neighborhood disturbing odors and/or other agencies, subject to the provisions of Section seventeen.
Notwithstanding the provisions of this Section or of Section seventeen, no use shall be permitted which would be offensive because of injurious or obnoxious noise, vibration, smoke, gas, fumes, odors, dust or other objectionable features, or be hazard- ous to the community on account of fire or explosion or any other cause. No permit shall be granted under this or any other section for any use which would prove injurious to the safety or welfare of the neighborhood into which it proposes to go, and destructive of property values, because of any excessive nuisance qualities.
In granting permits under this Section the nature of the neighborhood and the nature of the proposed industry shall be considered and the effects of the industry on the neighborhood shall be carefully weighed. If the industry would in any way injure the neighborhood a permit shall be refused. Where a permit is granted all conditions which still protect the neighbor- hood shall be imposed and made a part of the permit.
HEIGHT REGULATIONS
SECTION 8. Residence Districts.
(a) The limit of height in all residence districts shall be two and one-half stories, not to exceed thirty-five feet.
(b) The limitations of height in feet shall not apply to chimneys, ventilators, skylights, tanks, bulkheads, penthouses,
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and other necessary features usually carried above roofs, nor t5 towers or spires of churches and other buildings, if such features are in no way used for living purposes.
SECTION 9. Business and Industrial Districts.
(a) The limit of height in business and industrial districts shall be three stories, not to exceed forty feet.
(b) The limitation of height in feet shall not apply to such features as are mentioned in (b) of Section 9, nor to water tanks or scenery lofts which shall not cover more than 25 per cent of the area of the building.
AREA REGULATIONS
SECTION 10. In residence districts, as provided in Sections 4 and 5, land laid out after the adoption of this by-law shall provide for each dwelling the following minimum lot areas :
For a one-family house, not under 5,000 square feet. For a semi-detached house, not under 6,000 square feet.
For a two-family house, not under 5,000 square feet.
Lots duly recorded by plan or deed at the time that this by-law is adopted may be used, provided that all requirements in regard to yards are fulfilled.
PERCENTAGE OF LOT COVERED
SECTION II. The percentage of its lot which may be covered by any building used for dwelling purposes, wherever located, shall in no instance exceed the following maximum provisions.
(a) One-family house : twenty-five per cent.
(b) Semi-detached house : thirty per cent.
(c) Two-family house : twenty-five per cent.
(d) Apartments : fifty per cent.
In business and industrial districts no building shall be built, reconstructed, extended or arranged so that it covers more than 80 per cent of a corner lct or more than 70 per cent of an in- terior lot. The open space required in this paragraph shall be provided in the rear, or in part on the sides, so as, in the opinion of the building inspectors, to properly light and ventilate the building.
No lot, or the buildings or structures thereon shall be changed in size so as to violate the provisions of this by-law.
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YARDS
SECTION 12. Front Yards In residence districts and neigh- borhood store districts, as indicated on the map, there shall be provided in front of every building a front yard of at least twenty feet in clear depth between the building and the lines of the way or ways on which the building lot abuts, and no new building or structure shall be constructed and no building or structure shall be moved, altered, reconstructed or enlarged so that a front yard less in clear depth shall result. Projecting eaves, uncovered steps, piazzas open or enclosed, not to project more than eight feet in front yard space, and bay windows shall not be considered as coming within the meaning of this section. Where to an extent of fifty per cent of the frontage space be- tween two intersecting streets or in any space of two hundred feet on the same side of a street, front yards of greater or lesser uni- form depth than twenty feet have been established, by common agreement, or by private building restrictions, or through com- mon usage, such front yard shall, notwithstanding any other provisions of this by-law, be and remain the front yard space for such street or portion of street. Where in a similar space there is a variety of depth, the average shall remain the required front yard depth.
Side Yards. There shall be at each side of every dwelling a side yard of seven and one-half feet in width, which shall be kept clear from the front to the rear of the building ; provided, that one side yard may be reduced in width by one foot for every one foot by which the other side yard is increased in width ; but no sideyard shall be less than five feet in width. Where the line of the lot is not parallel with the line of the house the aver- age width of the lot shall be as above.
Back Yards. Behind every dwelling there shall be provided a back yard between the rear line of the house and the rear lot line, not less than fifteen feet in depth. Back yards may con- tain accessory buildings not over one story high and covering not over twenty-five per cent of the area of the back yards.
YARDS FOR NON-RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
Any use, not residential or accessory, permitted in a resi- dential district shall observe all provisions of this by-law in regard to depth and width of yards as applied to dwellings.
11
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TOWN DOCUMENTS.
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GENERAL PROVISIONS
SECTION 13. Accessory Uses.
(a) Accessory uses shall be on the same lot with the building of the owner or lessee, and shall be such as do not alter the character of the premises on which they are located or impair the neighborhood.
(b) Garage space for not more than two cars shall be per- mitted as an accessory use in residence districts.
(c) Where manufacturing of any kind is allowed as an accessory use, it shall be restricted to such light manufacturing as is incidental to a permitted use and where the product is cus- tomarily sold on the premises by the producer to the consumer.
(d) The use of a room or rooms in a dwelling as an office or studio by a physician, dentist, lawyer, music teacher, or other professional person resident in the dwelling may be permitted as an accessory use. In such cases a professional sign of not over one square foot in area may be used.
SECTION 14. Non-Conforming Uses.
(a) Any building, part of a building or premises which, at the time of the adoption of this by-law, is being put to a non- conforming use may continue to be used for the same purpose.
(b) No non-conforming building or structure shall be altered except as ordered by the building inspector to make it safe, or extended, nor shall it in any ten year period be repaired to an extent of more than fifty per cent of its assessed value at the time of the last application for a permit to repair, except that a two-family house in a one-family district may be reconstructed in any event.
(c) A non-conforming use may be changed to a more restricted use or to a conforming use, but it shall not be changed to a less restricted use.
(d) In residence districts, when a non-conforming business or industrial use has been discontinued for a period of one year, it shall not be re-established and future use shall be in conformity with this by-law.
(e) Any dwelling existing at the time of the adoption of this by-law, in case of fire, may be reconstructed on its original foundation.
SECTION 15. District Boundaries. The district boundaries shall be as shown on the zoning map, the scale of the map, and the figures entered to serve as guides ; the building inspector to decide in all cases of doubt. Where the boundary line divides
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ZONING LAW REPORT.
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a lot in a single or joint ownership at the time such district is established, a use authorized on the less restricted portion of such lot may be extended into the more restricted portion, but in no case for more than twenty feet over the established line. Where a business or manufacturing district adjoins a residence district and has its main frontage on one street, that street shall be used for the frontage and for all receiving and delivering of goods and no lots opening, only on a side street may be used. Where a district is indicated as fronting on two intersecting streets, both frontages may be used.
SECTION 16. Location of Automobile Services. No portion of the front or side lines of a public garage, automobile repair shop, greasing station, storage battery service station, or gasoline filling station, or any of their appurtenances or accessory uses, shall hereafter be placed within fifty feet of any residence district. No driveway to such premises shall be in any part within fifty feet of any residential district. No such premises shall have any driveway entrance or exit for motor vehicles within three hundred feet of the property used by any public or private school, public library, church, playground or institution for the sick or dependent, or for children under sixteen years of age. Every filling station shall hereafter be located not less than fifteen feet inside the building line and no filling shall be done except into cars standing on the property of the filling station.
SECTION 17. Permits by Selectmen Required. No permit for a cemetery, hospital, sanatorium or philanthropic institution wherever located; or for the place of business of any black- smith, builder, carpenter, contractor, mason, plumber, roofer, tinsmith, upholsterer, undertaker, or for any mentioned use under heads 7 and 8 of Section 6, in a business district; or for anything permitted only under Section 7, shall be issued by the Building Inspector except with the written approval of the selectmen as provided in this Section and subject to such condi- tions as the Board of Selectmen may deem it proper to impose.
Any person desiring to obtain the permission of the Select- men, for any purpose for which perinission is required under this by-law, shall make written application therefor and the Selectmen shall hold a public hearing thereon after such notice as they may direct and render a decision. They may make rules for such hearings, and shall notify all holders of real estate who might be affected and shall at such hearings hear such owners and
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others who may desire to be heard. No permit shall be granted by the Selectmen without considering the effects upon the neigh- borhood and the town. If a permit may be issued with condi- tions, such as will protect the community, such conditions shall be specified in writing on the permit. If a permit would result in substantial injury it shall be refused.
SECTION 18. Conflict of Laws. In general this by-law is supplementary to other laws and by-laws affecting the use, height, and area of buildings, structures and premises. Where this by-law imposes a greater restriction upon the use, height or area of buildings, structures or premises than is imposed by other provisions of law or by-laws, the provisions of this by-law shall control.
SECTION 19. Plats. Applications for permits shall be accompanied by a plat of the lot in duplicate, drawn to scale, showing the dimensions of the lot and the location and size of the buildings already upon the lot, and of the building to be erected. A record of such applications and plats shall be kept on file in the office of the Building Inspector.
SECTION 20. Enforcement. This by-law shall be adminis- tered by the Building Inspector. He shall approve no applica- tion of any kind, plans and specifications and intended use for which are not in all respects in conformity with this by-law. He shall issue no permit for anything covered by Section 17 till the applicant has secured the written permit of the Selectmen therein required. He shall grant no permit for any use which would in his opinion prove to have, in the location where it seeks to establish itself, any nuisance qualities, not withstanding any provision of this by-law which would seem to permit such use. Where a permit may be granted with conditions that would improve or protect the status of the community, such conditions shall be imposed and made a part of the record.
SECTION 21. Occupancy Permit. No building or structure erected, altered or in any way changed as to construction or use under a permit or otherwise and no premises shall be occupied or used without an occupancy permit signed by the Building Inspector, which permit shall not be issued until the building, structure or premises and its uses and accessory uses to comply in all respects with this by-law.
SECTION 22. Appeals. Any person aggrieved by the refusal of the Building Inspector to issue a permit under the provisions of this by-law, may appeal under the provisions of Sections 27 and 27A, Chapter 40 of the General Laws.
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SECTION 23. Exceptions under Specific Rules. When in its judgment the public convenience and welfare will be sub- stantially served, and where such exception will tend to improve the status of the neighborhood, the Board of Appeals may in specific cases, after public notice, a hearing, and subject to appropriate conditions and safeguards, determine and vary the application of the district regulations herein established in harmony with their general purpose and intent as follows :
(a) Permit the alteration of a one-family house or building, existing at the time this by-law is adopted and wherever located, to accommodate two familes.
(b) Grant temporary and conditional permits for structures and uses that do not conform to the regulations herein pre- scribed, provided that no permit shall be for more than a one- year period.
(c) The Board of Appeals may grant no variation which would amount to an amendment of this by-law or a change in zone lines, all such amendments to be made as provided in General Laws, Chapter 40, Section 30 and in Section 24 of this by-law.
SECTION 24. Amendments. The Planning Board, either upon its own initiative or upon petition of ten persons, shall hold public hearings, 14 days' public notice of which shall be given, for the consideration of any repeal or amendments to this by-law and report to a town meeting its recommendations as to what action should be taken, before any repeal or amendment may be considered by a town meeting.
SECTION 25. This by-law shall take effect as provided by law.
Respectfully submitted, CHARLES N. WORMSTEAD, Chairman JOHN C. PITMAN, Secretary FRANK M. RAMSDELL GEORGE TWEEDY
Members Planning Board.
J. ARTHUR RADDIN JOHN HUSLER GUSTAF E. DAHLEN WASHINGTON L. BRYER
Committee appointed at 1927 Town Meeting.
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Report of Public Works Dept.
To the Honorable Board of Selectmen :
I beg to submit at this time the annual report of the Public Works Department, for the year ending December 31, 1927.
DIVISION OF HIGHWAYS.
Several streets were taken care of this year with a semi per- manent surface of graded gravel and tarvia, and continuation of this program will add greatly to the area of easier riding streets and cut down the general maintenance. Four or five of the shorter streets should be added to the list every year. A regular maintenance patrol should be established in connection with the work.
Drainage conditions have been relieved considerably in East Saugus this year, and the drainage in Saugus Center should be taken care of in the very near future. If the sewer system is not developed rapidly the town will be forced into the construction of expensive drains to carry off the surface water, as the streets are improved.
Construction of a permanent character was laid on Lincoln avenue and Winter street, and should be carried on through Winter street to Central street in 1928.
Resurfacing with graded gravel and tarvia has resulted very satisfactorily on Bristow street, and has relieved the traffic con- ditions on Ballard street to a considerable extent.
Construction on Essex street, should be continued to Clifton- dale square, and permanent construction, reinforced concrete or blocks, laid on the southerly side of the green.
The entire square in East Saugus should be reconstructed to fit in with the new bridge.
The continuation of treatment of streets with tarvia and pea stone has proved its worth in maintenance and should be extended annually.
A snow removal program has been extended to clearing all the squares and opening the principal streets for traffic after each storm.
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PUBLIC WORKS REPORT.
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Sidewalk and curb construction was carried on in the main traffic lines from the squares this year and should be continued.
DIVISION OF WATER
As shown in the accompanying figures, the work of the Water Department has increased very materially during 1927. Saugus continues to enjoy an ever increasing home building program, requiring more and more extension, and service installations in proportion.
Meters are required on all new services and many old services have been metered this year. The policy of metering all the old services should be continued.
The work of replacing the old cement lined pipes with cast iron water pipes was started in East Saugus this year, substitut- ing a 12" cast iron pipe for the old 6" cement lined pipe, there- by furnishing four times as much water as formerly. This work should most certainly be carried on as rapidly as possible, to eliminate the very serious and costly conditions brought about by every break occurring in these old mains.
General water main extension was carried on in all parts of the town to the relief of many property owners in the outlying districts.
Hydrants are being placed on all main extensions, fourteen having been added this year.
The principal work on water extension was in Golden Hills, starting at the Melrose line and covering the area adjacent to the lower lake. The actual amount of water pipe laid considerably exceeded the estimate and all of the property owners who really expected to benefit from this first installation are within service distance of a main. Hydrants have been located on this system so that all the buildings in the area come within the insurance requirements.
The main on Holland street should be connected to the main on Elm street in the very near future.
Respectfully submitted,
WILLIAM J. LUMBERT, Supt. of Public Works Dept.
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TOWN DOCUMENTS.
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Water Extension, 1927
Pipe.
8""- 12"
Lily Pond avenue
330'
Victoria street
396'
Hampstead street
267'
Aberdeen avenue
474'
Fiske road
285'
Clark and Saville streets
903'
Main street
210'
Talbot street
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