Selectmen Want Prescott School in Town Center Overlay District
On Thursday, September 18 at 7:45 PM, the Planning Board - at the request of Selectmen - will hold a public hearing proposing to rezone the town-owned Prescott School Property to TCOD rules [Town Center Overlay District], effectively expanding the power of Selectmen and Planning Board to decide the disposition of the town-owned building and - in a larger sense - consolidating a greater degree of control over another section of Main Street.
The expansion of the powers of Planning Board and Selectmen by extending a form of spot zoning - called TCOD zoning [Town Center Overlay District], would empower the Planning Board to exert their vision of how Main Street should look, as well as taking significant power from Town Meeting to decide the disposition of Prescott School.
Last year, the Planning Board met resistance from voters for their plans to refine Town Center Design Guidelines and expand the special form of spot zoning known as TCOD zoning to other areas of the Center. This resistance resulted from the fraught experience of expanding and implementing TCOD zoning in the 134 Main Street Development, also known as Boynton Meadows. The problems created by this zoning expansion included the application of inappropriate design guidelines to a rural setting, statutory conflicts with the HDC [Historic Districts Commission] and pressuring the Conservation Commission to allow building within the 100 foot wetlands buffer to make the project 'commercially viable'.
In addition, there was public criticism of the Planning Board for not sufficiently addressing parking and traffic flows in and out of the Boynton Meadows project, one of the primary responsibilities of the Board. Some residents felt the Planning Board soft-pedaled this primary responsibility at the expense of making the Boynton Meadows project viable.
Another complicating factor in evaluating the total impact of the Boynton Meadows project was that Selectmen Josh Degen and Stuart Schulman, in their roles as members of the Affordable Housing Trust, worked with the developer of Boynton Meadows to include two affordable housing units in the project and worked with the CPA to invest more than $400,000 of town monies in the project.
Selectmen are planning to reintroduce Gregg Yanchenko's plan to renovate Prescott School as a business location at Fall Town Meeting, giving him a break on property taxes. It is unclear how this plan will fit with inclusion in the Town Center Overlay District.
