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Chairmen
weigh in on Plymouth Rubber debate
By Jay Turner
Citizen Staff
Despite
recent statements to the contrary by Napleton attorney Paul
Schneiders, Board of Selectmen Chairman Bob Burr said last week
that he does not regret his decision to oppose the rezoning of
the Plymouth Rubber site, nor does he believe that the fate of
the 40-acre property was sealed by the April 28 town meeting
vote.
Meanwhile,
in a separate interview, Planning Board Chairman Jeremy Comeau
painted a radically different picture, as he made his case for
why he thinks the town “dropped the ball” by leaving the site
zoned for industrial uses.
Burr:
Town made the right choice
In an
extensive interview on Saturday, Burr, who was part of the 3-2
majority of selectmen who opposed the mixed-use project, vocally
defended his position while also insisting that the BOS was
prepared to vote against the project as early as late March, and
only agreed to wait until April 22 at Napleton’s request.
He said the
developers “admitted there was no market for condos right now,”
and that even if they secured the rezoning, were planning to use
the site for industrial purposes until the real estate market
turned around. He said the end result would have been a higher
property value for the owners with no immediate benefits to the
town.
“They wanted
the permitting ability to [build housing] without actually doing
it,” alleged Burr, adding, “We don’t do business that way.”
“To go from
650 units [including] hundreds of apartments to 395 units and no
apartments in a short window of time — that isn’t negotiation;
that’s ambiguity.”
Burr also
rejected the notion, expressed by Schneiders, that the
opportunity for a future residential development has been lost
forever, arguing that the “parcel is way too important” to both
the town and the owners.
“I don’t
think this whole thing is going to go away,” he said, noting
that it is not smart for any developer to completely “shut the
door” on future negotiations.
And while he
made it clear that selectmen would be more than willing to
reopen talks with Napleton at a later date, he said he
considered a number of Schneiders remarks to the Citizen
last week to be “reckless,” including his suggestion that
virtually anything could now be built on the property without
much environmental cleanup.
Comments
aside, however, Burr said he would have never supported a
project in the downtown area that called for so many
condominiums. He said mixed-use developments, although once
popular, are now failing all over the state, and that the ones
that worked in Canton, such as Forge Pond, worked because they
were done “very pragmatically.”
“Do I like
the Forge Pond development? Yes, I do,” said Burr. “Do I want
ten Forge Pond developments, or 12 or 15, in one area? No, I
don’t.”
Comeau:
Napleton not taken seriously enough
In contrast
to Burr, Comeau was one of the two Planning Board members who
ultimately voted to endorse an amended rezoning article.
The Planning
Board was actually the author of one of the proposed articles
and appeared to be behind the project until its final vote was
cast less than an hour before town meeting commenced. The
meeting itself, explained Comeau, is standard practice for the
Planning Board.
Comeau, who
recently replaced George Jenkins as chairman, said all three
members who opposed the project had different concerns, ranging
from issues with the density of the development to the need for
a stricter timeline with regard to the building of promised
amenities, such as a community center.
Yet he also
acknowledged that some members seemed to take the developer’s
warnings as threats — a sense, he said, that perhaps led people
to not take Napleton as seriously as they should have.
“As town
officials, we all need to take this seriously,” he said. “But to
basically trash their proposal in the hopes that in a few months
they’ll come back and try again — that’s not what we’re here
for.”
Comeau said
he felt it was important to get the best deal possible for the
town, which is what he thought they had heading into town
meeting — particularly compared to where the two sides started
from more than a year ago.
Now that a
decision has been made, however, Comeau said he believes there
is little, if anything, the town can do.
“They’re
looking for industrial uses and we didn’t want that,” he said.
“But they have the industrial use as of right.”
May 15, 2008
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