Special town meetings are a way to “bless” voters with little understood bylaw changes. By now we all know about the changes to the bylaws necessary to comply with the requirements to qualify as “Green Community,” and the Grant Money the town will get thereafter. The special town meeting became necessary as the Holland leadership missed the opportunity to include the bylaws on prior warrants.

There are three bylaw changes which do not have anything to do with this issue (Green Community) and which could be on the warrant for the annual town meeting to be held on May 31.

This would make more sense as more people attend the annual town meeting.

In particular, the community is unaware of the bylaw change which will diminish democratic principles and the voter’s rights and will put even more power in the hands of a corrupt town official, Lynn Arnold, the chair person of the Holland Planning Board. Under Article #7, the voters are asked to empower Lynn Arnold or any successor to appoint associates with voting power to the Planning Board at her (or successor's) free will.
Why not make it simple and give her two votes? Here is the proposed bylaw change verbatim:

ARTICLE #7: To see if town will vote to accept the following changes and amendments to the General Bylaws:
Associate Member of Planning Board
A. The Planning Board Chairman may appoint a Planning Board associate member for the purpose of acting on any Planning Board business requiring a quorum of four (4). The Associate member shall be appointed annually or continue on the Board past the one year until specific business requiring the quorum is completed. Should the Associate Planning Board position become vacant, it shall be filled forthwith by the Planning Board for the unexpired term.
B. The Planning Board Chairman may designate the associate member to sit on the Board in case of:

The absence of a regular member;

The inability of a regular member to act;

A conflict of interest of a regular member; or

A vacancy on the Board.

Lynn Arnold and her husband Fred Beaulieu know their way around; they know the right people and know how to play the game.

Lynn-Arnold-driving-the-boat-and-acting-as-spotter-at-the-same-time-in-violation-of-the-law.

Pictured above, Lynn Arnold and her husband Fred Beaulieu waterskiing without the legally required spotter, endangering others on the lake without a care. Even after I posted this picture here on the blog of Lynn looking back while steering the power boat at great speed and others, they kept doing it. To read that piece, click here! (click on picture to enlarge!).

In 2002 the couple bought a cottage on 9 Shore Drive; the house measured 24’3” by 28” and had a 3’ wide staircase on the south side attached to the cottage.
The lot was nonconforming.
On May 17, 2005, Lynn Arnold applied for a special permit to “Put[ting] a 28’ x 28’ addition and remodeling existing house at 9 Shore Dr.”
The permit was granted.
The house was subsequently demolished instead of remodeled, and Arnold applied for a variance.
Lynn Arnold’s builder, Andre Cormier, made claims about where the building was during the public hearing. However, nobody could check any longer as the building was gone.
The variance was granted on January 19, 2006.

The initially sought special permit was granted under section 7.024 of the Holland zoning bylaws. Section 7.024 allows alterations to a nonconforming structure as long as the change “will not increase the habitable space.”
The original cottage was 679sf, the final structure was 1,568sf, an increase of 130%. The original cottage was 24’3” by 28’, the house according to the submitted plans is 28’ by 56’, on the Vision Appraisal website the measurements are one foot less, 27’by 54’ and the basement is listed as unfinished.

Lynn Arnold was instrumental in helping Andre Cormier to turn a 24.47 acre tract of land Cormier’s company Escape Estates, Inc. bought for $100, into five valuable building lots. Lynn Arnold signed the ANR plan on October 19, 2004, which created the five building lots. The Holland Blog wrote about this issue in the piece about Andre Cormier.

There is a lot of talk about the mistakes that were made in the 60’s and 70’s, by creating these small lots.
When do we stop adding new blunders?

Lynn Arnold has proven over and over again that she thinks she is above the law, she will not get my vote which would give her even more power. I will vote NO on Article #7.
Her husband Fred Beaulieu does not think highly about the rights of common people either. In response to a letter to the editor, Fred Beaulieu made clear that common people should just take what they are dished out. In my letter I predicted after the election of 2007, that all who dared to run for office against the incumbent would pay a price and predicted that the town would file a lawsuit against Chad Brigham and the LaMountains, owners of the hillside property.
It turned out that it wold be a series of lawsuits not just one, all of which the town lost by the way, one still being on appeal at the Appeals Court of the Commonwealth. I heard that the town made an offer to keep face which the Lamountains allegedly refused to accept.

To read my letter which was published in the Southbridge Evening News, click here!
To read Lynn Arnold's husband, Fred Beaulieu's letter in response published in the Southbridge Evening News, click here! Talking about being privilaged, waterskiing without a spotter... more than doubling the footprint of a house on a non-conforming lot...
Fred Beaulieu oscillates between boards as needed; When he wrote the letter he was a member of the Planning Board, during the public hearing on the Senior Citizen low income housing, he was acting as Chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals.

I’m also opposed to the adoption of the bylaw requiring a special permit in order to register an accessory apartment or dwelling despite the state’s recommendation to allow permits “as of right” if all the requirements are met.
I wrote about this issue in the piece, Proposed Zoning Bylaw Changes. The voters have an opportunity to reject the bylaw in its current form and an improved bylaw in conformance with the state's recommondations could still be put on the warrant for the annual town meeting.

If nobody wants to step up to the plate and serve as a member on any boards, we need to watch town officials and not give them a free pass to do what ever they like.

Why not enforce the bylaws we have now?? James Wettlaufer is not the only one who has built an accessory apartment without the proper permits; I do know of many others, too many. If it is possible to have these apartments without a bylaw, why do we need one? Isn’t having no bylaw kind of self-regulating? People try to make it not to obvious that they have one, the very purpose the bylaw wants to achieve, not changing the rural character of our community...
There are people who already have two accessory apartments in their house; I have been inside an apartment in a house here in Holland which has already two accessory apartments. The owner was looking for a tenant and had it advertised, I went to see it. Our zoning bylaws are a JOKE, not even the table of contents is right..

Lynn, why not clean-up and apply the bylaws we have before adding new ones?

April 15, 2011, Peter Frei

Public Hearing of March 22, 2011, on the proposed amendment of the Zoning Bylaw, and the proposed amendment to the General Bylaws to adopt the “Stretch Code.”
Proposed Zoning Bylaw Changes.
Selectboard Meeting of February 15, 2011.
Voters of Holland, HOW DO YOU FIND THEM?
Record Keeping at the Planning Board
Planning Board of Holland denied resident right to divide his property
Soon it will be crunch time in my case against the Planning Board

Next Tuesday’s Special Town Meeting.

Here some history about the Arnold Beaulieu couple:

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