Town of Sharon Planning Board

Meeting Minutes for October 11th, 2006

Amended and Approved October 25^th, 2006

Planning Board Attendees

Arnold Cohen – Vice Chair	Wayne Bradley
Amanda Sloan – Clerk	Paul Lauenstein

Peter O’Cain – Asst. Town Engineer

Guests

Richard Benevento – Edwards and Kelcey

Steve Cecil – Cecil Group

Meeting Initiation

Meeting was called to order at 7:40 pm by Vice Chair Arnold Cohen.

Meeting Discussion

Chair’s Report

• Performed by Mr. Cohen
• Read a letter from Town Clerk informing the Board that there is a pre-Town Meeting to be held on November 7^th at 9:00 P.M. in the Selectmen’s Office.

Form A

• Mr. O’Cain stated that a Form A Plan regarding King Philip’s will be discussed at the next meeting.

Sign Review

• None to report.

Meeting Minutes of 9/27/06

• Board reviewed and amended draft meeting minutes of 9/27/06. An updated draft will be provided to the Board for review at the 10/25 meeting.

Economic and Transportation Master Plan for the Town of Sharon

• Richard Benevento from Edwards and Kelcey and Steven Cecil from the Cecil Group discussed the proposal they prepared for a comprehensive Economic and Transportation Master Plan for the Town of Sharon. Their goal was to explain appropriate development opportunities for Sharon and identify funding opportunities that may be available to the Town.  They explained that they had met with the Economic Development Committee previously and were invited to speak to the Planning Board by Chair Eli Hauser who has seen their presentation at an Economic Development Committee meeting.
• Edwards and Kelcey is a national firm that is a full service agency whose Boston office works mostly with plans for cities and towns. The Cecil Group is a planning and design firm who helps clients put the pieces together. They practice urban design and focus on towns and town centers. They stated that economic and civic cooperation is needed to make improvements in traffic patterns that affect economic development. They work with cities and towns around the Commonwealth on planning and design programming. They said it is important for the Town to set short and long term goals in order to achieve a better outcome.
• The team discussed the work they did in Stoughton Center regarding improving traffic flow issues and discussed former parking spaces now used for mixed use and apartments. They basically rearrange land use.  One problem they identified, in Stoughton in their opinion is that no planning was done for IKEA. The Town received no impact fees with which to build infrastructure to deal with greatly increased traffic.
• To work with Sharon, Mr. Cecil stated that you need to determine the right balance for the future and you need the resources to make the necessary changes to accommodate development. If you want to maximize tax basis, planning is necessary.
• Mr. Benevento introduced the proposal and provided a handout to the group. The main topics discussed were: the plan for the future, leadership and participation, the strategic master plan with all associated steps as well as the transportation master plan.
• Mr. Cohen asked if Mr. Cecil could help solve septic issues in the center of town and Mr. Cecil answered they will help build financial models which show what infrastructure is needed to enable people to improve land value. He stated that the Town needs to think about how to live with limitations and come up with a game plan to improve the Town Center.
• Ms. Sloan asked if the Cecil Group was environmentally sensitive and he stated they were.
• Mr. Lauenstein said that protection and preservation of Sharon’s natural character is a core value of the community, and must be respected for any development plan to have a realistic chance to pass at Town Meeting.
• Mr. Cecil stated a vision has to be built on an understanding where a dialogue is set up amongst all parties. There needs to be a strategy for growth and change that is appropriate. for the character of the Town. If you do not have a strategy, you lose control. You need to create a 5 year plan that will attract broad community support.  Doing nothing will lead to uncoordinated development
• Mr. Cohen inquired if they would be available to review the Brickstone process and they said they would be.
• Mr. Cohen said he was impressed with the presentation and we would figure out how to take the next steps.
• Ms. Sloan asked what the next steps in the process would be and Mr. Cecil commented that the process takes a period of about 8 months to create a useful strategy. Beyond that, people lose attention/focus so it’s better to have as compact a process as possible. Mr. Cecil recommended an 8-12 member steering committee representing diverse constituencies in town.  You can then reach out to larger groups through special meetings.

Other Business

Lot Shape Article

Mr. Cohen noted that the by-law would be effective in slowing future growth and planned to argue this point at town meeting.  Potential opposition to the lot shape article was discussed.  Mr. Bradley observed that FinCom voted unanimously to “indefinitely postpone”.  Fincom members were concerned that even some rectangular lots would fail the proposed factor.  Expressing concern that we might lose the fight, Mr. Bradley suggested a fallback position of a less restrictive shape factor might help get it passed.  He felt the Board was unanimous in its desire to prevent the truly extreme shapes being created.  Suggestions were made to revise the factor to 25 and/or 30.  Mr. O’Cain felt that we should forge ahead and make our case.  He volunteered to research the number of existing lots that might be affected by the article.

CSD Bylaw

Mr. Bradley stated he went to the ConCom meeting and they indicated that they would like the PB to hold off on the 10% affordable housing component until the Inclusionary Zoning bylaw is drafted. Mr. Bradley stated he is inclined to say yes to try and achieve consensus with other Boards as this would go a long way to ease concerns. Mr. Cohen questioned if you take out the 10%, should you put affordable back in? Mr. Lauenstein suggested coming back in the spring to address all aspects of Inclusionary Zoning, including small developments where cash contributions to an affordable housing fund might be necessary in order to create parity.

Mr. Bradley moved that the Board withhold 10% housing requirement from the proposed CSD warrant article subject to formal ratification by the Conservation Committee at their next meeting. Mr. Lauenstein seconded the motion. The Board voted 3 in favor and Mr. Cohen abstained.

Terminology

Ms. Sloan provided the Board with sample advertisements with the term “New England village” referenced. She also provided other materials which illustrate that low impact design techniques are happening in other towns.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Planning Board will be held on October 25th at 7:30 pm, Town Hall.

Meeting Adjournment

Ms. Sloan moved to adjourn meeting at 10:50PM; Mr. Lauenstein seconded the motion; passed unanimously.

Respectfully submitted,

Rachelle F. Levitts

Administrative Assistant