Lighted signs article goes dim in Tyngsboro – Lowell Sun

TYNGSBORO — Phyllis Young, the owner of Pozitively Young, believes she’ll be positively old before the town grants her permission to switch on the electric “open” sign that hangs in her salon’s front window.

Selectmen voted unanimously to withdraw a warrant article from the Feb. 15 Special Town Meeting. If it passes, the article would have amended the B-2 zoning law to permit Young and two adjoining business owners at 9 Kendall Road, Lynne Donnelly of the Bittersweet Bake Shoppe, and Stephen McElhinney of Farwell Antiques, to have lighted “open” signs in their front windows.

Selectman Bob Jackson, who originally authored the proposed B-2 lighted-signs article in an effort to help B-2-zoned businesses draw more customers, informed Young, Donnelly and McElhinney last week of the bad news: He was forced to withdraw the article last week after discovering larger, overriding problems with the B-2 zone and town zoning in general that first needs to be addressed, he said.

Jackson said a major problem with the B-2 zone is that it contains several residential neighborhoods inside a “business” zone. The zone covers a square-mile section west of the Tyngsboro Bridge from the park-and-ride on Route 113 to the north, to Westford Road bordering Notre Dame Academy to the south.

“I am disappointed, and it’s frustrating,” said Young. “We’ve got residents who are living in a business-only zone and probably don’t even know it. Even Bob (Jackson) didn’t know it until

he looked into it to verify we were the only businesses in B-2, and then he looked at the bigger picture and said, ‘oh, my gosh, this goes all the way up to Middlesex Road and it’s all residential.’ ”

Appearing before the Planning Board on Thursday, Jackson explained his withdrawal of the Special Town Meeting article on B-2 signage.

“The possibility of changing the wording of the B-2 zoning would have created other, unintended problems,” said Jackson. “There needs to be a remapping of the town’s zoning and review of the rules describing each zoned area. The B-2 signage issue would have been a distraction from that review.”

Town Counsel Charles Zaroulis and Northern Middlesex Council of Governments representative Beverly Woods have been advocating for years for the town to get a comprehensive zoning review, Jackson said. He encouraged Planning Board members to lead an effort to remap all of the town’s zones. Jackson urged the Planning Board to lead a comprehensive review of the town’s zoning.

Planning Board Chairman Steve Nocco said the board is a specific site-review panel only, however, and that any zoning overhaul would have to be produced by a special committee empowered by the selectmen.

“I agree the zoning is outdated, and the Planning Board would have no problem helping out with an effort to update the map,” said Nocco. “But we don’t have rezoning authority.”

Donnelly, owner of the Bittersweet Bake Shoppe, said she was disappointed to learn that zoning confusion has caused her request for a lighted “open” sign to be denied.

“I understand that if we had lighted signs then technically every home in this area could have them,” said Donnelly. “

And it means Tyngsboro needs to be re-zoned because if you look at the zoning map, it’s broken, wacky, all over the place.

“But the most disappointing thing about this is, the rezoning is going to take forever, as far as my business is concerned. I might be retired by the time it’s done,” said Donnelly. “In the meantime, we suffer for it.”

As a result of the denial, McElhinney and Young are considering moving their shops to “a more business-friendly location,” such as Dracut, Lowell or New Hampshire, they said.

“It’s hard to operate here because I really don’t think Tyngsboro is a business-friendly town at all,” said Young. “I’m seriously thinking about going somewhere else.”