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Minutes of October 15, 2003
TOWN OF SHARON
PLANNING BOARD

Minutes of a Meeting of the Planning Board held on Wednesday, October 15, 2003, at 6:30 p.m., at the Sharon High School Library.

                PRESENT:        JOEL TRAN, CHAIR
                                SAMUEL SOLOMON, VICE CHAIR
                                REGINA MANISCALCO, CLERK
                                NADINE OSTROW
                                ELI HAUSER
                                PETER O’CAIN, ASST. TOWN ENGINEER
BUSINESS TRANSACTED:

I.      Meeting called to order.

II.     ESTATES AT BORDERLAND

Selectmen Joseph Roach, David Grasfeld, and Town Executive Director, Ben Puritz, were present to obtain the Board’s comments on this subdivision.

Mr. Puritz explained that the Selectmen were seeking further comments from the Planning Board (“PB”) and the ZBA, especially with respect to an economic analysis prepared by the PB and distributed to the other departments.  The Selectmen felt they would benefit from a coordinated analysis and comments from the PB.   The Selectmen are not involved in site plan review.  Given the significance of the 40B’s in general in the Town, and in terms of the scale of the Mountain Street application, it would be helpful to collaborate on comments presented on this filing.

Mr. Tran said that he had reviewed the FXM Associates report and felt that when he looked at the numbers, they were using an overall Town average for children in the school system.  He didn’t think this was a good representative of school children.  He felt they should look more at Sharon Woods as an established 10 year old subdivision as a good comparison.  Mr. Tran had asked Mr. Solomon to prepare an economical analysis based on this report and Mr. Solomon’s prior report of possible growth numbers of children in the Town.
                                                ______________________________
                                                          Administrative Assistant
Minutes of Meeting                          Page Two                     October 15, 2003

Mr. Solomon explained that the report indicated that the school population in Sharon is growing and will continue to grow, so the 185 children added from this subdivision will have minimal impact. Mr. Solomon explained that in fact the school population is not growing and does not see it as growing pursuant to studies he has done.  The peak has already been reached and is on a downswing. So the possible addition of 185 children to the school system would not be a minimal impact.  He compared Estates at Borderland (“Borderland”) to Sharon Woods regarding the number of children added to the school system.  The applicant has not indicated how many, if any, age qualified units will be built at Borderland.  If there is a large number of this type of unit, there would be less of an impact children-wise.  Mr. Solomon distributed a copy of his evaluation, including figures, to the Selectmen.  

Mr. Tran added that something does not ring right in the FXM report.  He had looked at Brewster and Littleton for statistics relating to cost of services, what residential properties cost the towns, etc., and the figures in the FXM report seem somewhat rosey.

Mr. Grasfeld then raised the question of somehow getting developers to build to attract the 20+ year olders to the Town.  Mr. Solomon answered that one of the reasons the 20+’s are not living in Sharon is that Sharon tends to attract families.  If you are single, you usually prefer to live closer to the City.  Also, 20+’s can’t afford to live in Sharon and tend to move here later when they are financially established, usually having families.   It would be great to have young couples living in Town for about 4-5 years before they have kids.  However, with the current taxes and high home prices, he doesn’t know if it would be possible to attract that age group into the Town.  He feels you would have better luck with age qualified housing because they do not have children who would be entering the school system and they are probably more able to meet the cost of living of the Town.  However, this is purely speculation on Mr. Solomon’s part.

Ms. Maniscalco added that the PB is working very hard on its Community Development plan and are looking for ways to have very diverse housing units, so that all age groups are accommodated.   The PB is very interested in helping older residents find affordable housing so that they can stay in Sharon.

Minutes of Meeting                       Page Three                  October 15, 2003

Mr. Puritz asked the PB to submit its comments to the Selectmen who will prepare a summary response to the ZBA with all comments from all Boards.

III.    PUBLIC HEARING – PROPOSED ZONING CHANGES

Mr. Tran first explained that this was the official meeting on certain proposed zoning changes noted in the Town Warrant.  

Ms. Maniscalco read the legal notice to open the public hearing.  Mr. Tran explained the procedure to be followed for the evening.

Mr. Tran then presented an overview of what the Board is proposing with these zoning changes.   In answer to concerns raised by Town residents that the tax base was too high in Sharon and that something needed to be done, the Board, over the last three years, has identified areas within the Town that would make sense to have rezoned from residential to some other district.  Ninety-four percent of the property tax revenues come from residential taxes.  Of the two areas currently identified for rezoning, one was the South Main/South Walpole area near the cranberry bogs.  This parcel consists of approximately 130 acres with just a few houses.  It is mainly undeveloped.   It makes sense from an economic point for the Town to rezone this area to a business district as it will generate more revenue and cost less in services to the Town than residences.

The other area under consideration for rezoning was the Cobb’s Corner area.  There are several houses in this area currently.  

Some of the things that businesses look for when considering a location are easy access to a highway or major road, contiguous parcels and size of parcels.    Both of these locations meet these needs.

Mr. Tran then explained what each of the seven warrant articles would do.
Art. I – would create a new zoning District D for the South Main Street area; which is similar to the Business District B but with some use restrictions.
Art. II  -  describes individual lots that would be in this district.
Art. III  -  describes lots involved with the Cobb’s Corner piece.

Minutes of Meeting                        Page Four                   October 15, 2003

Art. IV -  describes a change in the professional district which is being proposed for Cobb’s Corner.  
Art. V  -  this article does not relate to these two areas but to the CSD article passed several years back.  It changes the minimum lot size required for the CSD from ten to five acres.
Art. VI  -  relates to corner visibility and corrects language in certain articles.
Art. VII  -  relates to the sign bylaw and includes putting the new business district into it.

Mr. Solomon went on to explain that the purpose of this public hearing was to obtain feedback from any individual in the Town regarding these articles.  The Board then will vote whether to go forward with the articles and take them to Town Meeting.  At Town Meeting, 2/3 of those present will vote whether to allow them or not.

The meeting was then opened to the public.  Comments went on from those present for almost three hours.  They can be consolidated as follows:

---Sharon is a bedroom community and the people that live here live here for that reason and don’t care about the high taxes.
---The quality of life needs to stay the same and not bring in lots of businesses.
---Let the business go to Stoughton and keep them out of Sharon.
---No traffic studies have been presented to show what will happen to the already heavy traffic in these areas.
---Doing this would not produce enough economic gains to justify these changes.
---Not enough notice or information has been given to the abutters about these changes.
---What’s the rush to get these things passed.  Get more information about the impact of these changes; do studies.
---Lots of wetlands on the So. Walpole Street site.
---Many homes with many kids abut the properties – impact to them.
---The changes will affect the property values of the abutting homes.
---Many of the properties are owned by elderly people.  You will be forcing them out to younger families with young children, thus adding to the school count.
Minutes of Meeting                        Page Five                    October 15, 2003

---Sharon has an equal tax rate for residences and business, so more homes will generate more taxes than one or two business.
---Too much traffic in the Cobb’s Corner area already – don’t increase it even more.
---Now have 8 affordable houses at Cobb’s Corner and you are looking to do away with those, stating that you are looking to add more affordable houses to the Town.
---Inadequate information provided to the abutters.
---Why can’t there be more meetings on this issue to bring forth more information?

Board members gave the following explanations to comments from the public:
---The PB followed the process required by law to notice the public hearing.  Notices were sent to all owners of record, as listed in the assessor’s office, of parcels located within these areas for change.  The legal ad was run two times in the Sharon Advocate as required by law.  Numerous articles pertaining to these issues have been run by the Advocate.  The Board has been working on these issues for the last three years.  The Board’s agenda, which includes all items to be discussed at each meeting, is posted at the Town offices in advance of the meeting.  
---No final decisions will be made at this meeting and the final decision as to adoption of these articles rests with Town Meeting, where 2/3 of those present have to vote favorably to adopt these articles.  If 2/3 do not vote favorably, the changes will not go forward.
---The Board decided to look for areas within the Town to rezone to business or professional districts after hearing from many Town residents that they want more commercial base in the Town to help offset the high taxes.  The Board has started a master planning process within the Town, holding vision sessions to go over issues of concern to Town residents.  One of the main points that came out of these visioning sessions, which were also advertised and written about in the Advocate, was that people wanted something done about the tax situation in the Town.  These zoning changes are one of the answers to those concerns.





Minutes of Meeting                             Page Six                      October 15, 2003

---There is not a complete traffic study for these areas.  In order to study traffic impacts, you have to know what is going to be built and what kind of traffic it will generate.  That is something that would get done prior to the business going in.  Although these areas are already burdened with heavy traffic, they are very commercial areas to begin with.
---The Board has had three different studies done regarding the economic gains of changing the zoning of these areas.   In the Cobb’s Corner area, business would give approximately $147,000 to the Town and another $35,000 for not having to educate the children that could populate that area.   For South Main Street, it is not known exactly how many homes could be built on these parcels, but they would be much larger homes than are there now and a 40B development could be another option, which would be even worse for the Town.  
---This public hearing is to give the Board feedback on these issues.  However, it is the Board’s mandate to protect and preserve the quality of life as it is now, but to also look at other opportunities to relieve the tax burden on residents.  The Board has been working on a community development plan.  It is the Board’s job to find lots of land that would allow the Town to find new tax revenues.  The Board has not as yet decided what it is going to recommend regarding these changes.  
---These parcels can be developed any way the developers want within the current zoning.  The Board is trying to change the zoning to dissuade residential development and try and get some type of businesses in.   It’s not a question of “if” – it is merely a question of when.  These landowners are not going to sit on their land indefinitely and the Board is trying to get the best deal out of the situation as it can.
---You will get more assessed value for property in a business or professional zone than in a residential zone.  It will also generate more overall revenue to the Town in general.  Business have less impact on town services and do not send children to schools.    The Board does not know what businesses would go into these areas.  However, it tries to make certain things available within limits.  For years, Rattlesnake Hill sat with nothing on it.  That is no longer the case.  The Town is now looking at over 250 homes to be built there.
---When the ZBA does site plan review, it has control over traffic studies, access issues, etc., and would require that the developers meet all standards.

Minutes of Meeting                      Page Seven                       October 15, 2003

---All current residences will be grandfathered as long as they remain residences.  They will not be torn down if these articles pass.
---In the visioning sessions for the Community Development Plan under EO418, people were split into focus groups to identify problems in the Town.  One of the major issues that came out of these visioning sessions was to bring more business into the Town to ease the tax burden on the residents.  The Board was asked to identify areas in the Town that could be rezoned for business.  Comments and general feedback suggested various parcels.  The Board met with other Town Boards to get their opinions on these issues and they too were favorable.  

Mr. Tran then closed that part of the meeting for public comment, as it was becoming very repetitious.  He then asked the Board members for any comments they wished to make.

Mr. Solomon first thanked everyone for coming and for their comments.  However, he did not know if these were perspectives from all the people in the Town.  He does feel that perhaps some changes may be in order before making any final decisions or recommendations, but that some form of these articles should probably be brought before Town Meeting in December.   He does feel that it is the Board’s responsibility to bring some options available to the Town and have Town Meeting decide on what should be approved or not.  

Mr. Hauser said that the Town has to take some measures to change because things are not going to stay the same in the Town.  If people think that the 20 or 30 parcels not built upon will remain open, they need to have some education and discussion.  The Town has to decide what can be done with this remaining acreage.  Otherwise, you can be assured that one house will be put on every acre still available.  The Town will then have to build bigger schools and provide more services.  A new house does not cover the cost of a new student.  People are tired of taxes going up $500 a year.  It is hurting people and they will move out of Town because they can’t afford the taxes.   He did suggest that additional data showing these costs be published and distributed to the public.

Mr. Tran said he also wanted to thank everyone for coming.   IT has been a learning situation for the Board.  There have been some good comments, some contentious, but needing to be heard.  The Board has had many positive comments regarding this rezoning.  He

Minutes of Meeting                          Page Eight                     October 15, 2003

is disappointed that the people that are in favor of it did not show up tonight.  Because there is not a great deal of positive feedback at this meeting, it does not necessarily mean it is the end of these issues.  It is very discouraging from the amount of work the Board has put into these issues, that when it comes time to get public reaction in a public forum, people who are in favor do not show up and do not comment.  The Board is trying to do the planning process that it was elected to do.  He was still of the opinion that this would economically benefit the Town and the landowners of these parcels.  

Mr. Solomon then moved to close this public hearing, seconded by Mr. Maniscalco and unanimously voted.

IV.     OTHER BUSINESS

The Gridley Pond subdivision off Wolomolopoag Road needed a street name.  After much discussion and many suggestions, Ms. Maniscalco moved to name the street “Tirrell Lane” after Charles Tirrell who was a Mass. State Representative and resident of Sharon.  Seconded by Ms. Ostrow.  Voted:  Two in favor (Ms. Ostrow, Ms. Maniscalco); three opposed (Messrs. Tran, Solomon and Hauser).

Mr. Solomon then moved to name the street “Chippewa Lane” in keeping with the Indian theme of the area.  Mr. Hauser seconded.  Voted:  Three in favor (Messrs. Tran, Solomon and Hauser); two opposed (Ms. Ostrow, Ms. Maniscalco).  

IV.     There being no further business before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 11:00 p.m.