The Natick Select Board spent the majority of its Sept. 29 meeting discussing articles slated for Fall Annual Town Meeting, which is coming up fast on Oct. 21. Topics ranged from establishing a committee to explore the possibility of holding hybrid Town Meetings to appropriating Community Preservation Act funds to updated signage rules for retailers.
Business signs
The Natick Center Cultural District‘s Heather Rockwood made her appeal for the board’s blessing of Article 29, or in Town Warrant language: “Amend Zoning Bylaws: S. V-H Signage and Advertising Devices – Downtown Mixed Use (DM) and Center Gateway (CG) Zoning District.” She got what she came for.
Rockwood earlier this year worked with the board to get permission for downtown (and beyond) businesses and organizations to promote themselves with A-frame signs and flags through year-end while going to work in recent months preparing formal bylaw changes with other town entities such as the Community & Economic Development office.
Goals include helping local organizations during challenging economic conditions while staying within guidelines for aesthetics and sidewalk accessibility. The efforts also seek to smooth the signage approval process. The revamped Natick Center train station and a slew of residential developments bring new opportunities for businesses to introduce themselves to consumers, Rockwood said.
“We believe these proposed put the businesses and the town’s economic vitality at the center of responsible planning and oversight by clarifying what is and is not allowed and more clearly defining roles and responsibilities across the various scenarios,” Rockwood stated. She said the Select Board would be licensing these signs and have its say on where the placards can and can’t be placed to ensure sidewalks don’t turn into obstacle courses. The Planning Board recently dove deep into this subject as well, during which there was discussion of supporting businesses not at ground level via window and building directory signage.
One board member, noticing the town of Wellesley’s increased use (to say the least) of sandwich boards, was assured that Natick itself could deploy such signage.
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More bylaw changes
The board also addressed proposed bylaw changes from the Charter and ByLaw Review Committee, which committee Chair Paul Griesmer described as being left over from spring. One had to do with including propane tanks (not your standard grill type) in regulations about underground tanks, as their placement can affect stormwater runoff, etc. The board was good with that.
The second motion under Article 31 had to do with what Griesmer explained as “creating a dedicated expert legal resource who can support every town body if they so choose that has to make a decision on zoning.” Dozens and dozens of zoning changes have gone before Town Meeting in recent years, he said, adding that zoning is a technical topic that lay volunteers may be challenged with.
The purpose of this motion is to help prevent lawsuits, economic development mistakes, and more, Griesmer said, ticking off examples where zoning bylaw rewrites were problematic. “One little omission” can lead to big problems, he said.
On this matter, board member Richard Sidney asked Town Administrator Jamie Errickson if Natick’s town counsel Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane might have a zoning expert the town could use for the purposes outlined by Griesmer. Errickson replied that he’d have to look into it but suspected yes. “In my experience working with many different legal counsels on zoning, it’s definitely a niche,” he said.
In looking back at zoning articles brought before Town Meeting in recent years, board Chair Bruce Evans said many of them were approved without fanfare, “so I don’t think that Town Meeting was confused by it.” He acknowledged that more zoning expertise is needed by the town and that Town Meeting should discuss this, but that he favors going through existing town counsel. He warned that the last time the town tried to rewrite zoning bylaw with an outside expert “was totally disastrous,” and that cleanup continues to this day.
Board member Linda Wollschlager said “I’m very much in favor of the spirit of this,” though like Evans leaned toward turning to experts from the firm that provides town counsel.
The board recommended referral to the board and town administrator.
Community Preservation funds & turf fields
The Board also during its meeting buzzed through seven motions under Article 28 regarding the town’s first-ever requests for appropriations of Community Preservation Act funds, which are raised through a property tax surcharge plus state matching monies.
The Select Board, like the Community Preservation Committee, gave its nod to all of the applications being presented to Town Meeting. The Select Board review followed that of the Finance Committee in mid-September, during which it voted favorable action on all motions other than one regarding a $750k request from Metro West Collaborative Development for the 5 Auburn St. affordable housing project—it made no recommendation on that. One thing the bid has going for it is that it checks off affordable housing and historic preservation boxes under the CPA formula.
Some Select Board members have been doubling down on their support for this project (“You can’t express the value of this project in just numbers…,” Evans said) as other community members have scrutinized whether the town would get enough value by investing so much in the proposed 32-unit South Natick complex and whether enough locals would even get a shot at the units. Despite strong neighborhood opposition due to project density and other concerns, the Select Board voted 3-2 in 2023 in favor of the non-profit’s pitch under which it offered $100 for the chance to develop the multimillion property. Meanwhile, Metro West Collaborative has posted a job for a new executive director.
(Disclosure: We live near South Natick.)
At the end of its Town Meeting prep session, the board squeezed in proponents of Article 33, regarding a moratorium on artificial turf. Dr. Donna McKenzie urged support for Motion B under the article, which starts with “Move that Town Meeting adopt an advisory for all town departments to abide by a three-year moratorium on the construction of artificial turf fields on town property for a period of three years from January 1, 2026-December 31, 2028.” She said now’s a good time for a town-wide conversation on this subject. The board agreed this will be a good topic for Town Meeting to discuss, and Evans said it could be part of a broader field-use study in town.
Also at the Select Board meeting:
- A newish resident on Beacon Street described basement flooding that started after the town removed curbing as part of a paving project. Sandbags aren’t going to cut it, and working with the town engineer hasn’t either, he said. Since the issue was brought up during citizen speak and wasn’t on the meeting agenda, the board couldn’t comment, but did direct the resident to message the board and that the town administrator would get on this.
- St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church went before the board to discuss a water/sewer abatement request in the wake of a pipe bursting. The town did grant an abatement, bringing the bill down from about $15k to about $5k by bringing higher tier charges down to the lower. The church was looking to have the bill reduced further because it said it didn’t use the sewage system for the excess water, but water/sewage usage isn’t quite calculated that way by the town, so the original abatement amount stood. As always, the board promoted the My360 water usage monitoring app.
