Above: An amended Article 32 spurred debate and some confusion at Town Meeting, then failed by two votes. It appears that the Town will be bringing back some version of the Article at a Special Town Meeting compelled by two voter driven initiatives. (cropped from SAM video)
Based on two filed Citizen Petitions, a Special Town Meeting has been called for next month. For any other residents looking to get items on the Warrant the time to act is now.*
This will be the third consecutive year that Southborough has held an STM. As of this morning, three Articles are potentially on the May Warrant. All three relate to process and rules around the Zoning Board of Appeals. And all three have roots in the controversy surrounding the ZBA’s handling of Park Central decisions.
According to Town Administrator Mark Purple, the Warrant will include two citizen’s petition Articles. The Board of Selectmen have also agreed to bring back Article 32 from the Annual Town Meeting earlier this month. That Article around an appeal process related to the ZBA was the subject of some confusion at the Annual Town Meeting. It failed by two votes on the sparsely attended second night.
According to Purple, other articles may still be submitted for consideration by the Board for inclusion in the warrant. I don’t have an official date for their closing of the Warrant. But the board will be meeting on Tuesday morning to consider language. So I’d act fast if you have something to request.
Purple indicates selectmen have voiced opposition to adding Articles that have a financial impact. (Though, they didn’t officially vote on that.) That makes it unlikely that the Town will sponsor reconsideration of failed Recreation Articles from Town Meeting. (Of course, residents have the right to add additional Articles to the currently open Warrant as long as they have enough petition signatures.)*
Selectmen voted to hold the Special Town Meeting on May 22nd at 7:00 pm.
The two Citizen Petition Articles that compelled the meeting stem from disagreement around what the Zoning Board of Appeals quorum is and should be, and how rule changes were handled. A dispute over the quorum initially came out of appeals around the ZBA’s actions on Park Central.
A controversial decision by the ZBA was made by just three members of the board. At the time, the Town Code appeared to specify that the board had a quorum of five members, four under special circumstances. Town officials have asserted that the ZBA rules were inaccurately listed in the Town Code, since the code specified that the board was able to vote to change the rules and had.
To me, it’s unclear how the specific rule revisions made in 2007 and/or more recently had any direct impact on the quorum. But affadavits by Town Officials claim that the rules should have been replaced which would have removed the language around quorum. According to ZBA Chair Andrew Dennington, the ZBA was acting under a set of officially filed rules which superseded the language shown in the Town code.
This spring, the Town Code was updated based on filed rule changes and the quorum language removed. Residents have been seeking to have the Town reaffirm the quorum is and should be as originally stated.
One petition, advocated on the blog by Marnie Hoolahan, seeks to make quorum and some other language around ZBA rules a permanent part of the Town Code. It is the second attempt made to schedule a meeting on this issue after the Town determined that the language of the first Article didn’t compel a meeting. (Click here to see the final version.)
An additional petition filed is seeking to require the ZBA to get voter approval in order to make changes to their rules and regulations. (Click here to view that one.)
As for “Article 32”, that relates to the process for appealing the Planning Board’s Site Plan decisions. As currently written, the Town Code allows anyone unhappy with a Planning Board decision related to Site Plan Review to appeal it to the ZBA. [click to keep reading…]
Tagged as:
park-central,
special-town-meeting-spring-2018
