by Frank Schroth

At the June 15th Planning Board meeting the developers proposing to build an assisted living facility at the site of Horseplay Stables gave the board an update. This was not a hearing on the development. What is being considered is an article that would be on the fall town meeting warrant for a zoning overlay that would permit an assisted business to be built-in a residential zone. The board discussed writing the article in such a way as to be specific to the Horseplay site.

During the course of the conversation the following points were made:

• Mr. Whiteside encouraged the developer to get input from the neighbors and identify and possibly include a “public benefit.” Whiteside said, “You have to sell this to the neighbors.” The developer has had some conversations with the neighbors and said that they viewed removal of the horse farm a benefit.
• Mr. Duffy characterized the plan he was looking at as “grossly insufficient.” He is looking for, and the board, agreed to the need for a locus plan that includes town assessor data.
• The developer said he would take the designs forward. He noted that there had been some reluctance on their part; “We didn’t want to spend the money if we didn’t get that far.” (i.e. far enough to know that the development had a chance of moving forward.) The board seems intent on filing an article for town meeting.
• The closing date for articles is August 9th for the October 22nd Town Meeting. Whiteside noted, “This could be a good proposal.”

Member Kelly asked if the article were written for the Horseplay site and only the Horseplay site wouldn’t that be spot zoning. Whiteside responded, “Spot zoning isn’t what it used to be. . . the courts don’t get so worked up.” Our understanding is that as a zoning overlay it will not change the underlying zoning and therefore it is not considered spot zoning. Kelly followed up with a question regarding community input. If there are no public hearings in advance of the article being adopted, when does the public have an opportunity to voice their opinions? The public will have an opportunity to comment between time article is submitted and the date of town meeting. There will also be an opportunity to speak to the article on the floor of town meeting.