Order 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 to 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 Mr. 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 code.
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 on 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, uh, 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 time
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 it 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 can'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 over 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 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 that 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 would 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 uh 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 with 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.