The Planning Board held its first public hearing on the proposed Town Meeting article last Monday, presenting a bylaw that would allow body art establishments in business districts A and B as well as the industrial zone, which includes Church and Oak streets and Corporate Park.

“We felt it was too restrictive, so we increased the area,” Assistant Building Inspector Tony Marino said of the body art bylaw, which was tabled at the Nov. 3. special Town Meeting.

The issue drew some concern from residents last fall around the time that one business owner was before the Zoning Board of Appeals seeking a variance to allow a tattoo studio on Mattakeesett Street. That application was approved on Nov. 24 and will not be impacted by the proposed zoning change.

The bylaw would include any business that offers body piercing (except for earlobes), tattooing, cosmetic tattooing, branding and scarification, according to the bylaw draft.

No residents turned out to the Feb. 22 public hearing on the new bylaw change. The hearing was continued to the Planning Board’s next meeting.

The issue of where to place body art establishments came up last summer, when town building inspectors and other officials realized that Pembroke’s zoning bylaws did not identify this use as either allowable or not allowable.

Work on that issue has brought up other perceived “gaps” in Pembroke’s zoning bylaws. Last Monday, the Planning Board took a brief look at several items that could appear on a future Town Meeting warrant if not this spring.

The board looked at the possibility of identifying certain businesses as “personal services” rather than simply retail; discussed establishing an allowable zone for “doggie day care” businesses; and talked briefly about regulating the use of storage pods and Dumpsters on residential properties.

“Over time, businesses change, and different businesses pop up based on the needs of society. We want to make sure that we address those as they come up,” Marino said.

He said the problem of doggie day cares had come up recently as small business owners attempt to run operations out of their homes, leading to complaints from neighbors.

“These are popping up all over the place, or they want to pop up all over the place, where people drop their dogs off at 8 a.m. in the morning and they pick them up at 5, just like your kid,” Marino said. “The problem is we’re seeing them pop up in residential neighborhoods, and we’ve been going after them, so this would at least limit them to business district A and B and give them a place to put it.”

All the zoning bylaw items were tabled for further discussion.

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