by John Osborn
With barely a quorum present, the five-member Planning Board voted Tuesday night to support a citizens’ petition that would exempt municipal buildings from the town’s protective bylaw.
The vote was 2-1, with members Joe Hutchinson and Tim Schmoyer voting in favor and Chairman Peter Brooks opposed. It followed a public hearing in the Town Hall Meeting Room that lasted less than 30 minutes.
The proposed amendment, presented at the hearing by Stu Sklar of Scott Road, would exempt any structure “owned or occupied by an Institutional use” within 2,500 feet of the flashing red light in the center of town from “any and all provisions of the Protective Bylaw.”
Hutchinson seemed prepared to vote for the bylaw change without modification, but Schmoyer objected, saying that the definition of institutional use was too broad and should be limited to town-owned buildings only. In a question and answer exchange with Schmoyer, Sklar said that his group would accept such an amendment as a friendly one if it were proposed at Town Meeting.
Planning Board chairman Brooks said that he objected to both forms of the amendment because it would dispense with any oversight by the planning or zoning boards, and leave decisions entirely in the hands of the selectmen and Town Meeting. “That’s just too much power,” he said.
The hearing was attended by selectmen Wallace, Clark, and Johnson; School Committee member Keith Cheveralls, and Planning Board candidates Chris Ashley and Jim Breslauer. But only Clark spoke.
The Board agreed to have Hutchinson present its contested recommendation and amendment at Town Meeting. Brooks said he would speak against it. In an aside, he said the matter could have been handled more simply by establishing a special overlay zone for Town Hall and its site.