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Napleton attorney says Canton will
regret town meeting decision
By Jay Turner
Citizen Staff
Despite a
town meeting process that he described as civil and fair,
Napleton Attorney Paul Schneiders said he believes voters made a
“terrible mistake” in refusing to rezone the Plymouth Rubber
property, and one that they will soon live to regret.
“I’m very
upset for the town,” said Schneiders in a telephone interview
last week. “I truly, truly believed, having lived here for over
40 years, that this was the golden opportunity.”
Schneiders’
comments came just days after he and his clients failed to
secure the two-thirds vote needed to transform the former
factory site into a mixed residential/retail development. And
while he admitted they were “very disappointed” by the final
outcome, he said he harbors no ill-will toward residents or town
officials and noted that Napleton will still make money — albeit
significantly less — from the site’s industrial uses.
“That’s
democracy,” said a surprisingly positive Schneiders in response
to the recent defeat. “That’s the way the town meeting voted.”
He said
Napleton is now in the process of shopping for industrial
clients to develop the property, and estimated that they already
have at least “a half a dozen substantial bids” — some from
people they had been talking to all along in the event that
their mixed use plans were unsuccessful.
He added
that the town, by not allowing residences on the property,
stands to lose approximately $800,000 a year in tax revenue, and
could also end up with an undesirable business, such as a
big-box retailer, occupying the site. Noting that there are over
60 permitted uses under the current industrial zone, he said
virtually anything, with the exception of dwellings, could now
be built there.
Schneiders
said he had warned town officials repeatedly that this could
potentially happen, but that his warnings were regularly
dismissed as threats used to scare voters into approving the
condo project. He said some even opposed the rezoning article
with the assumption that Napleton would try again next year with
fewer housing units.
He said one
town official who had opposed the rezoning even called him two
days after town meeting to inquire when they were going to
“discuss this thing again.”
“I told him,
‘We’re not,’” said Schneiders.
“It will be
an industrial use,” he added. “There is no more discussion about
this being residential.”
As for the
historic Revere barn and copper rolling mill — two buildings
that Napleton had planned to spend millions of dollars
preserving — Schneiders said the “protection is absolutely
gone.”
And even
though his clients have “no desire to take history down,” they
are still planning to file a demolition request with the
Historical Commission in case a potential industrial buyer wants
to get rid of the buildings.
Of course,
there will also be no community center or walking trails; no
farmer’s market or spillway repairs; no cash payments to the
schools and selectmen; and contrary to a claim made on the floor
at town meeting, very little cleanup of toxic chemicals.
“What’s in
the ground will stay in the ground,” said Schneiders, who
reiterated another one of his warnings — that compared to a
residential zoning, “not much cleanup at all” is required with
industrial uses.
Although he
certainly believes a lot was lost as a result of last Monday’s
vote, Schneiders described the entire process as a “very, very
good exercise in democracy” and stressed the point that his
clients have no intention of acting out of spite moving forward.
“We did our
best. We tried everything we could to convince our town
officials,” he said.
Schneiders
did admit, however, that he thinks the results would have been
different had the developers been from Canton, or if at least
one of the two major boards — either the selectmen or Planning
Board — had come out in support of the project.
Unfortunately for Napleton, not only did a majority of both
boards oppose the project; but they did so at the last minute,
with selectmen taking their first official position just days
earlier and the Planning Board reversing course on the night
that town meeting opened.
“I guess I
wasn’t terribly surprised by the outcome,” said Schneiders.
“People at town meeting tend to listen to their elected boards.”
May 8, 2008
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