The Planning Board met on Thursday night to revisit the discussion of two zoning-related Town Meeting Warrant Articles for the Town Meeting beginning on May 13.
On March 21, the Planning Board cast their advisory votes for the proposed zoning to comply with the state law known as MBTA Communities. The board was split on the topic, with 4 members voting in favor and 3 voting against. Some no votes were in protest of the law itself, and members and community members alike expressed concerns that, while this law only requires zoning and not new building, the state could add the building requirement at a future date.
Since that meeting, the attorney general’s office has provided feedback on the proposal, and their proposed changes (which were minor wording and definition changes) were brought to Planning Board on Thursday. The purpose of this vote was to amend the language of the article so what goes before Town Meeting has been approved by at least one state office. This is not to say the plan has been completely approved by all necessary state offices; that will likely come after.
This amendment to the language that goes in front of Town Meeting received a 5-1 vote, with Mr. Impemba once more voting against the principle of the law.
The second of the Town Meeting Warrant Articles before the Planning Board was a petition to rezone the property where the Sculpture Park currently sits so part of it can be used for the new police station. This was re-voted because the public hearing wasn’t advertised exactly as required the first time around.
Two major points of contention here were (1) that the town at large voted to maintain this property as open space, and it doesn’t feel right for Town Meeting (a very small subset of the town) to vote to use the property for other purposes, and (2) that the Building Committee should have come with a site plan (ideally with a good, better, and best option) so the Planning Board could see how much of this property would actually need to be used.
The Building Committee has already agreed to return the unused property to its original zoning and preserve it as open space.
In the end, the Board casted a 3-3 advisory vote, which will be explained at Town Meeting.
