Planning Board Approves Community Booth Policy at Legacy Place

The Dedham Planning Board unanimously approved the policy regarding community Retail Merchandising Unit located at Thursday.

Legacy Place currently has been under a trial period regarding a “community RMU,” but according to Peter Zahka, counsel for Legacy Place, this was the next step of the process. There will be a total of seven RMUs, which includes the community RMU.

They were , but the board called for revisions of the proposed policy. Those revisions were addressed by Legacy Place to the Planning Board’s satisfaction.

“It looks like what was concerned about, I’m satisfied with,” board member Michael Podolski said regarding the changes made to the policy.

Zahka explained that board made recommendations and they acted upon them. One was to change the community RMU qualification to a 501(c) instead of a 501(c)(3). This would allow organizations like the Rotary Club to hold fundraisers. Another was in-kind assistance that would make the kiosk free of charge, but the organization would have to clean the booth after use. 

Also, insurance qualifications can be waived since many of these would be one-time users with not need. This would be in the area of organizations doing fundraising or raffles. The last change was that Legacy and the organization involved will decide on a time and they must adhere to what is decided. Therefore, if the organization agrees to be there for three hours, they must do accordingly.

The board and Legacy Place officials agreed that if problems arose from the RMUs, they would be revoked by the Planning Board.

“In being fair with you, there are two folks who don’t want RMU,” Planning Board member John Bethoney said referring to the August meeting where there was a vote of 3-2 for the trial period that ends in December. “If there is any trouble with RMUs, I will move to revoke.”

At the Aug. 11 meeting, Zahka presented a plan that involved placing seven RMUs along the sidewalks. One kiosk, the community RMU, is reserved for non-profit and civic organizations.

At that meeting board members argued that the sidewalks are already busy with pedestrian traffic and that this may create issues. However, Zahka and Legacy Place representatives ensured the board that they have not had problems during the trial run and that they do not expect any to arise. The trial run ends in December.

Discussion during Thursday’s meeting surrounded how it would affect the overall experience for the public when going to Legacy Place. At the August meeting, Robert Aldous and Ralph Steeves voted against the RMUs for several reasons including clogging up the sidewalk areas with vendors.

Board members wanted to ensure that people wouldn’t be stalked down by representatives at the RMU. Bethoney gave an example of customers getting attacked by representatives putting cream on their hands or offering other products as it is done at other establishments.

Board members stated that they don’t want this to be a nuisance for anyone at Legacy Place. Steeves said that they would be keeping an eye on the situation and if they heard complaints they would act on them.

“If there’s a problem, we’ll tell you there’s a problem,” said Steeves.