ZBA Holds First Public Hearing On Indoor Swimming Pool
Sandra Miranda, owner of Thumbtastic Pool, recently appeared before the Falmouth Zoning Board of Appeals to request a special permit to allow her to resume teaching swimming and aquatic exercise classes in the indoor swimming pool at her home.
Ms. Miranda had an enclosed swimming pool built at her home at 105 Redlands Road after the pandemic forced many of the public pools in Falmouth to either shut down or greatly reduce their usage. In a letter filed with the appeals board, Ms. Miranda wrote that she had been teaching aquatic exercise classes using other pools in town and after a year without access, she was able to convince her husband to build her “dream pool to operate [her] business and help people” using an EIDL loan given for COVID relief to businesses. The pool was completed and opened in May 2021.
In December, the issue of Ms. Miranda’s pool was before the board of health, which ultimately decided to issue a cease-and-desist order after it was brought to the board’s attention that the Mashpee Recreation Department was using the pool—which does not have a permit for semipublic use—for swimming lessons. The board of health told Ms. Miranda that she needed to get the proper permitting from the appeals board before any classes could resume.
The first public hearing on the subject was held on February 10 and numerous members from the Ashumet Valley neighborhood were in attendance. Robert B. Dugan, board clerk, read most of the nearly three dozen letters submitted by community members and other stakeholders, which introduced a mixed bag of information to the hearing.
Of the 27 letters that were read into the record, 20 were in support of Ms. Miranda and her pool. Many of the supportive letters spoke highly of Ms. Miranda’s work with disabled and sick people and commended her pool facility’s cleanliness and accessibility. Many of those who wrote letters said they have taken classes with Ms. Miranda to help with their own ailments or disabilities and applauded her for providing the public with a safe and clean place to swim, something that many argued is not readily available for those in Falmouth and surrounding towns.
One letter in particular, from Falmouth resident Candace M. Bryda, said Ms. Miranda’s classes “essentially are [my] mental health.” Suffering from a back disability, anxiety and PTSD, Ms. Bryda took a class at Thumbtastic shortly after her mother died. In her letter, Ms. Bryda wrote that she was able to find “peace from [my] mind” during the one hour she spent in Ms. Miranda’s pool, a relief that she has not been able to find elsewhere, and asked the board to consider people like her in making its decision.
Of the seven letters that asked the board to oppose the project due to various concerns, the most-prominent issues neighbors had were regarding increased traffic to the densely populated residential area, the dangerous placement of the Miranda property on a sharp curve in the road, illegal driveways fronting on Currier Road, and the precedent the decision to allow Ms. Miranda to continue running her business would set for home businesses, moving forward.
Joan and Robert Bates, who are also residents of Redlands Road and members of the Ashumet Valley Property Owners, Inc., wrote a letter to the board and expressed concerns over what the change could mean for the character and appearance of their neighborhood. As a realtor, Ms. Bates also advised the board of the potential negative impact that granting the permit could have on property values in the area.
The two unpermitted driveways on Ms. Miranda’s property were also identified as problematic by the town’s engineering department. Neither of the driveways fully satisfy the requirements of the town’s bylaws, and the property has more than the allowed two driveways per lot.
Speaking before the board, Ms. Miranda said that her pool’s impact on the neighborhood would be minimal, if there was any. She said that it would be operational for about 16 hours each week: she teaches four classes herself; another instructor teaches two; swimming lessons are four days a week for two hours; and once a month she teaches a class for adults with special needs.
“The hard part—and I think my abutters don’t understand a lot—is that I’m not asking to be a [YMCA],” Ms. Miranda said. “I’m not asking to be open and operational seven days of the week. It’s 16 hours.”
Ms. Miranda told the board that she largely left her husband in charge of the building process, including the permits, because she trusted that he would take care of everything. Her husband was not at the hearing. She said she was unaware that there was a permitting issue until she got a call from an employee at the Mashpee Recreation Department, who alerted her to the fact that she was operating without a permit. Ms. Miranda said that when she asked her husband, she was told that she just needed a final inspection.
“He called up, and they came and they did an inspection,” she said. “When I got the paper, I saw a permit, I took a picture, I sent it to Heidi [McLaughlin, of Mashpee recreation]. I thought it was all set, so I kept going forward, thinking, ‘I’m trying to be an honest person, I’m doing the right thing.’ I had no idea it was not commercial.”
Ms. Miranda acknowledged that she is trying to work backward through the permitting process, which is difficult, but emphasized that she is willing to do whatever it takes to get the necessary permits. She said she has preemptively taken care of some existing issues on the property: two improperly located sheds have been removed and a fence currently in the right of way is ready to be moved as soon as the ground thaws.
The issue of the unpermitted driveways has also been taken care of—for now. Ms. Miranda said she placed a basketball hoop and trash cans to block access from Currier Road. Ms. Miranda said she was not involved in the construction of the driveways or parking area—which she said can accommodate up to 14 cars—on her property and did not know it was something that she was not allowed to do.
“I certainly don’t want to make this into a war,” Ms. Miranda said. “I want to make this so that it works for everyone.…The reason I put it on Currier Road was because I didn’t want to bother the neighborhood, but I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to, so now I’m willing to change that, [to] make it however it needs to be, so that it can be accessed but not hurt the neighborhood.”
Ms. Miranda told the board that she took the initiative to begin improving her facility using a list from the board of health’s inspection, which included upgrading to an ADA-standard self-closing door and a ramp.
Mr. Dugan asked if at any time during that process anyone told her that she first needed to determine whether she actually qualified as a home business per the bylaw. Ms. Miranda replied that she read the bylaw herself, has consulted five different lawyers for advice and believes her business would fall under a different subsection of the bylaw.
Mr. Dugan pointed out that the bylaw, for example, does not permit home business uses that are more than 30 percent of the living space, nor does it permit parking for more than two additional cars. As is, Ms. Miranda’s property exceeds both of these maximums, and Mr. Dugan said that the board does not have the authority to override the bylaw requirements.
“I appreciate the ADA, but there’s no need to do ADA compliance unless you know if you qualify for the bylaw,” Mr. Dugan said. “In my opinion, if you had put this application in, the first thing I would’ve said to you before you spent money on the application was ‘it doesn’t look like you qualify for the 30 percent, so please make sure that you qualify for that before I take your money.’”
Ms. Miranda argued that the poolhouse is part of her home and since it is shared living, it should not count toward the 30 percent cap for her business. She considers only the actual pool itself to be where she conducts her business, which she said calculates to about 20 percent of her living space. Mr. Dugan, however, said that it does not work that way—all aspects that relate to her business—including restrooms, changing areas, the entire poolhouse and any other space that patrons can access—are included in the calculation.
“You couldn’t say ‘I’m only counting the center of a room that it’s occurring there and it’s not occurring in the surrounding area of the room that they have to use,’” Mr. Dugan said. “If it worked that way on these percentages, every small business that we’ve ever [given] a permit to could use a house.”
Mr. Dugan told Ms. Miranda that she should look at the bylaw and determine if she can meet the criteria to even qualify as a home business because if she does, then the board would be allowed to grant a permit. But if she does not reach that standard, then her request cannot be considered because it is not within the board’s purview to waive those bylaw requirements.
“I just don’t want you to get into a situation where you’re doing it in reverse and you’re now doing more changes until you find out if you even qualify under this bylaw,” Mr. Dugan said. “Because you don’t want to put more money in, if we may not have the right to give a permit for what you want because it goes above what the [maximums] are.”
The board advised Ms. Miranda to consult with her attorney regarding the bylaw criteria for home businesses before returning to the board. A few of the board members—Scott Petersen, vice chairman Edwin P. (Scott) Zylinski II and Mr. Dugan—commended the nature of Ms. Miranda’s work and were sympathetic to the cause.
“It’s very commendable, all of the support that you have and your professionalism and what you’re trying to do,” Mr. Zylinski said. “That’s why this board is so intricate about certain things; so please don’t take this a slight to your professionalism or any of that…zoning is intricate.”
The board voted to continue the public hearing until March 10.