LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen told residents of Brookside Avenue on Monday night that adopting a moratorium on a pet crematory now would not affect any project already before the Planning Board.

Larry Roix, a resident of Brookside Avenue who owns a development there, said abutters have concerns about having the pet crematory at 18 Brookside Ave. He requested selectmen to establish a moratorium on the business in their neighborhood until an ordinance could be written.

Roix said no industrial businesses should be in the neighborhood but there is a process for home occupations, such as the one he and his wife operate.

“We have already started to develop $250,000 to $300,000” homes in the area, Roix said.

Any ordinance approved by voters at a town meeting would only affect future projects, Chairman Bill Demaray said.

“A moratorium would not stop the process,” he said. “I would not want a crematorium in my backyard.”

He noted the latter was his personal opinion and not the board‘s.

The Planning Board approved a site review application in May for Journeys End, a pet crematory. An administrative error was made prior to a public hearing when abutters were not sent notices of the hearing by certified mail.

The Board of Appeals heard an administrative appeal of the site plan application on Sept. 3. The board sent the matter back to the Planning Board. That board will discuss setting up a second public hearing on the application at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19, at the Town Office.

Neighbors submitted a petition during the public hearing in May that opposed the business but there is no criteria in the town’s Site Plan Review Ordinance to prohibit it, Planning Board members told them at the time. Code Enforcement Officer James Butler Jr. reiterated that Monday.

Resident Tarek Nadeau, who drafted the petition and also appealed the Planning Board’s decision, said residents in the area are seeking a moratorium.

“We are not opposed to the pet crematory,” he said, but don’t believe that type of business is suitable for their residential area.

Brookside Avenue, which was formerly known as Fiorica Road, is off Pomeroy Hill Road, which is off Route 17.

Besides the administrative error, Nadeau said, the Planning Board did not follow section five of the Site Plan Review Ordinance. Among its contents is that no business should have an adverse affect on residences in the area, he said. Residents are also concerned about emissions, he said.

The pet crematory and the incinerator to be used have to adhere to state regulations.

Nadeau said residents were asking for an ordinance to stop the crematory.

Demaray said the Planning Board reviews and proposes ordinances that need to go before voters before they are established, not selectmen.

Selectmen can ask them to draft an ordinance such as a fireworks ordinance.

Ordinances have been drafted before but residents rejected them, he said.

“This town does not like to be told what to do with their own property. Neither do I,” Demaray said.

If the application does not get approved in the second round by the Planning Board or the project is abandoned, then an ordinance can be introduced for a moratorium if it affects the whole town, Town Manager Kristal Flagg said.

A moratorium would give the Planning Board 180 days to develop an ordinance, she said.

“Right now there is nothing we can do about it at this level,” Demaray said. “I don’t want to sound negative or mean but it is always ‘not in my backyard.’”

dperry@sunjournal.com

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