entering natick sign

entering natick sign

Natick Report

More than you really want to know about Natick, Mass.

  • About Us
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Donate
  • Eat
  • Summer Camp
  • Private Schools in Natick & beyond
  • Public schools, sponsored by Sexton
  • Letters to the editor
  • Guidelines for letters
  • Sports schedule & results
  • Embracing diversity
  • Charities/Community
  • Arts
  • Events
  • Kids
  • Business
  • Environment
  • Top 10 things to do
  • Beyond Natick
  • History
  • Government
  • Seniors
  • Natick Nest
  • Fire & police scanner
  • Natick snow plowing services
  • Halloween happenings
 
 

Natick keeping its single tax rate

December 1, 2023 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The Select Board made its annual call this week on whether or not to split the tax rate, that is, to have a single tax rate for residents and businesses, or to have one group pay more than the other. The Board, which often gets asked about splitting the rate by residents feeling property tax pain, stuck with a single rate for the “residential factor” and went out of its way to explain why, with assistance from the town’s director of assessing.

Director of Assessing Eric Henderson kicked off the Fiscal Year 2024 Tax Classification Hearing with a presentation (embedded below) going over the basics of tax rates, sharing the latest on Natick’s property values, and reviewing the town’s options on rates. If you watch the whole presentation via the Pegasus recording, you’ll get your fill of new growth, excess levy capacity, and some fun math equations.

Natick impresses with a total tax value of just under $11.5 billion, with a “b,” for FY23. That’s up 7.41% from the previous year.

About 82% of the value derives from residential properties, and the FY23 average value of single-family homes rose from about $759K to $817K (if you prefer medians, which downplay the outliers, values rose from $686K to $729K). New growth contributed more than $2M in tax dollars to the town.

The usual good news/bad news is that Natick’s property tax rate per $1,000 of property value continues to fall, but tax bills keep rising because property values keep rising despite interest rates tamping things down a bit for certain properties. The projected FY24 tax rate would be $12.26, down 38 cents from the year before. “Obviously a correlation as the [assessed property] values go up,” Henderson said.

Under a single tax rate, the average Natick residential property owner in FY24 would be looking at a property tax bill of around $10,021, up roughly $424 over the previous fiscal year. You might like the projected increase based on median value better: That’s $268.

Also, don’t overlook tax assistance and deferral programs available to eligible residents.

natick fy23 tax rate
Natick gets “generally pretty good bang for the buck” vs. neighboring communities, says Director of Assessing Eric Henderson

 

Henderson says the mix of single rate vs. split rate municipalities across the state has stayed pretty steady for years. Currently, 243 communities have a single rate, as does Natick, while 108 use split rates. For Natick, if it were to go with a split rate, residents’ bills would fall by 1%, while commercial property owners would see a 4% spike.

During discussion following Henderson’s presentation, Select Board member Rich Sidney said that he and the board do not take the tax rate decision lightly. In explaining the board’s considerations, he highlighted that the assessed values shown are from January 1, 2023 and that current home values might be different based on factors such as Fed interest rate adjustments. He also pointed out that if the town were to go to a split tax rate and residential bills fell a bit, those bills would probably bounce right back the next year due to commercial property values being lower. He credited the single tax rate in part for supporting Natick’s vibrant downtown and industrial centers.

Another consideration about going the split rate route, Henderson said, is that you might see more commercial property owners appeal their valuations. Residents rarely do. Board Chair Bruce Evans said that if Natick changes to a split rate, appeals by commercial property owners will spike. “I can guarantee that,” he said.

Select Board member Kathryn Coughlin also commented on the split tax rate issue, citing the continued tough retail climate as a reason not to shift more of the tax burden to commercial property owners. She cited millions of square feet of unleased office and retail space in town (not including the mall) as of the end of June. She also noted the impact that spaces vacated by anchor tenants at the mall has on rents that can  be charged for other tenants. Raising commercial property taxes would really hurt small businesses like those in downtown Natick, she added. “There’s a lot of very good justification to keep the single tax rate,” she said.

The Board voted 5-0 in favor of the single tax rate.

Download (PDF, 673KB)


Please support Natick Report, your local news source, by contributing or becoming an advertising partner

Filed Under: Government, Real estate


Natick seeks input for updated hazard mitigation plan

November 30, 2023 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Natick has received funding through the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency to update its 5-year-old Hazard Mitigation Plan, and the town is seeking input through a public workshop and online survey. This plan helps the Town strategize to receive funding for projects that reduce the risk of injury or damage to property from natural hazard events such as flooding, winter storms, and hurricanes.

Natick will be working again with consultancy Horsley Witten Group, and there will be a Hazard Mitigation Planning Committee composed of town staff from Police, Fire, Public Works, Administration, Community and Economic Development, Public Health, and Sustainability.

Learn more about the plan and process at a public workshop on Wednesday, Dec. 13 from 6:30-8pm at Town Hall (3rd Floor, School Committee room). To participate remotely, connect via Zoom and use Meeting ID: 831 6587 1964 (Dial In: 1-309-205-3325).

“The purpose of the meeting on the 13th is to review the actions that have been completed by the Town to date and then get feedback from the community on whether those actions made a difference for them, and what issues are most important to them for inclusion in the upcoming plan,” says Claire Rundelli, Environmental Planner and Conservation Agent for Natick.

Share your ideas and concerns as well via a community survey. You’ll be asked questions about what mitigation steps you’ve taken or might take, and about what the government can do to address hazards. The survey will be open for at least a week after the public meeting.

The meeting and survey mark the start of the public engagement process around the updated plan.

flooded basketball court pleasant st


Please support Natick Report, your local news source, by contributing or becoming an advertising partner

Filed Under: Environment, Government, Weather



Natick School Committee debates need for separate pre-K playground at East School

November 29, 2023 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

During its Nov. 20 meeting, Natick School Committee members were asked to approve a fiscal year 2025 capital budget plan of $2.25M (see 5-year plan embedded below). Line items of $400K for a district-wide wireless network and $575K for HVAC systems raised few or no eyebrows, but $200K for a new pre-K playground for a few dozen kids at the East School did.

While the town has invested heavily in a playground and sports facilities at Connor Heffler Park adjacent to the school, that park is town-owned. “We’re not allowed to restrict access to that playground during school hours,” Interim Natick Public Schools Superintendent Bella Wong told the Committee. In fact, when the school system put up signs to cut off public access so that only the pre-school kids could play there, it was told that wasn’t permitted.

So the Natick Public Schools system is looking for a new small and fenced-off playground that the pre-school kids at the East School can use during school hours.

Connor Heffler Park playground
Current town playground at Heffler Park

 

Natick Public Schools Director of Finance Matthew Gillis says there is an above-ground oil tank set for removal that would free up space for a small playground. Playgrounds typically last for about 20 years, he added later.

While Natick’s main pre-school facility is at the high school, the former East School (at East Street and Rte. 9 West) is now used for 5 overflow pre-K classrooms, plus after-school programs. The original idea for having pre-school classes there was for 2 to 4 years, Wong said, and the program is currently in year 2. “I think it’s easy to say it will go to year 4,” Wong said. “It might be too early to say how much longer, but then we are asking for an elementary pre-school study [as part of the FY25 capital request], and that will help you answer the question better.”

Factors such as when a new or renovated Memorial Elementary School might come about would play into how Natick handles its pre-school facilities down the road.

School Committee member Elise Gorseth expressed discomfort over paying for a playground located on land the School Committee doesn’t control and that might only serve its purpose for a couple of years. “There’s got to be a better solution to this problem,” she said.

Pre-school students do have access to the gymnasium at East School, but the goal of course is to let them play outside, too.

School Committee member Matt Brand raised the idea of whether the School Committee could go in with the town on paying for the new playground, and Gillis indicated that idea could be broached.

Looking ahead, School Committee member Julie McDonald said one thing that made her wary about the new playground proposal is that another $200K is requested in FY26 for a playground study. She said she’d rather just build the playground than fork over a similar amount of money for a playground study: “I think we have a sense of what the playgrounds are that we need.”

Separately from the proposed playground expense, School Committee member Kate Flathers questioned another $200K earmarked in FY25 for design work on a Natick High School field replacement. While acknowledging that field needs work, she’d like to see a field utilization study from the athletic department to get a good sense of which fields are used for which sports and how many participants use them, etc.

McDonald also raised questions about a $250K placeholder for a long-term capital plan and enrollment study, suggesting that perhaps only an enrollment study is needed given a study was conducted a few years ago regarding the school system’s buildings.

The School Committee voted unananimously in favor of the FY25 capital plan.


See something? Send something: natickreport@gmail.com


Download (PDF, 645KB)

Filed Under: Kids, Schools

Advertisements

 

Natick Board of Health talks grease traps & tobacco products (or not)

November 28, 2023 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The latest from the Natick Board of Health as discussed during its Nov. 13 meeting:

Grease trap talk

The Board mulled how to handle a grease trap requirement for the Eliot Center for Health and Rehabilitation at 168 West Central St., brought about by that outfit undergoing a change of hands about a year ago.

The town requires that “New or remodeled food establishments or food establishments with a change in ownership that prepare food and have a seating capacity of 100 seats or more must install an external grease trap.” This rule applies not just to traditional restaurants, but to other establishments that run kitchens.

External grease traps, which can be pricey, provide more oomph than internal ones like the facility has for filtering out junk from kitchens before it hits the town’s sewage system and potentially plugs up lines. The price and logistics of installing external grease traps have been known to stymie food service businesses looking to open in various communities.

Eliot Center requested a variance from the town to install a larger interior grease trap rather than an external one to “meet some measure of compliance,” Natick Director of Public Health Michael Boudreau during the Board of Health Meeting. It would be up to the Board to determine whether that would meet town requirements or at least serve as a stopgap solution until an external grease trap could be installed. Eliot would be in for some significant expense and plumbing work to add an external grease trap while the facility is perhaps not at full capacity (no Eliot representative attended the meeting).

The business that changed hands a year ago was in place before new grease trap regulations were approved in 2003, Boudreau said, explaining that that iteration of the facility wasn’t required to meet the external grease trap rules.

Board member Donald Breda suggested an extension of the town’s requirement for the external grease trap to show Natick is “sensitive to their problem, but that we’re also sensitive to the fact that there are regulations that require a grease trap for a reason.” During that extension period, the Health Department could work with the business to determine whether there’s any reason installing a grease trap in that particular location wouldn’t make sense, he added.

The Board denied the variance request, but agreed that Boudreau would issue an order to the business to install an external grease trap within a year, with a condition to upgrade the internal grease trap for now.

Natick Board of Health


If you think it would be a good idea for Board of Health meeting recordings to be made available on Pegasus, let them know: info@natickpegasus.org


Tobacco products—or not

The owner of retail adult tobacco store Royal Smoke Shop, which opened on Rte. 9 East in Natick in 2022, met with the Board of Health on Nov. 13 to appeal a Nov. 2 order that it had to stop selling flavored rolling papers, blunt wraps, and other “tobacco products” as defined under the town’s regulations and interpreted by a town health inspector.

Citing Chapter 19 under the Board of Health Regulations, Boudreau pointed to the definition of tobacco product:


tobacco products
From Natick Board of Health Regulations Chapter 19

The town’s interpretation of this rule outlaws the sale of flavored products that are used for vaporization or aerosolization, said Boudreau, who also cited the town regulation’s definition of “Flavored tobacco product” and prohibition against blunt wrap sales, as well as state law.


flavored
From Natick Board of Health Regulations Chapter 19

The basis of Royal Smoke Shop’s appeal was that based on the town’s definitions, his products aren’t actually tobacco products, and that past health inspectors were fine with them being sold. “If they are tobacco products then you have a bigger problem on your hand because the entire state, all the dispensaries are selling tobacco products without a tobacco license,” saidRoyal Smoke Shop owner Jaymin Patel, adding that you can currently buy such products from Natick’s recreational marijuana dispensary as well as online via Amazon and other retailers. They’re all under the impression that these are not tobacco products, he says, as is the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, which does not tax such products as they do true tobacco products.

Boudreau said, however, that the Cannabis Control Commission allows such products to be sold by dispensaries.

Patel also questioned definitions used by Natick, arguing that hemp-based wraps like he was selling are not blunt wraps as described in the town’s rules, as blunt wraps are defined as being made from tobacco. He pointed out that rolling papers generally are used for making joints, not for encasing tobacco. The idea behind banning blunt wraps, he said, is to reduce use of tobacco since the wraps are made from tobacco leaves.

There may be updated state regulations regarding tobacco products, Boudreau said, but that Natick is going off definitions used when it issued permits and model regulation code put out by the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards. “Mass General Law…does specifically state that flavored tobacco product sales [pre-manufactured cigarettes, etc.] are not allowed…,” he says. “Is there some wiggle room for argument that a flavored paper could be used for something else or is it a tobacco product?”

Patel said sales of such products actually aren’t a big part of his business, but he would like to at least be able to sell out his $3,000-$4,000 of inventory in coming months if they are truly banned. He says even though he can’t currently sell it at his store, he could sell it to Massachusetts customers online.

The Smoke Shop owner wrapped up his comments during the meeting with the Board of Health by asking “If the town and state is strict on physical stores within its premises, what are they doing to limit these sales at dispensaries but also at Amazon and online retailers? If it is such a case that it is a product that is causing kids to smoke more tobacco, why are we focusing the regulations only on physical stores instead of online stores where more people are getting things via ecommerce when there’s not even age checks like at our physical stores.”

Board members said their interest is in protecting the public health, though also being supportive of local businesses. They agreed to have the decision stand for at least a month until the Health Department gets a chance to check on the latest state thinking and intent on this subject.


Please support Natick Report, your local news source, by contributing or becoming an advertising partner


More:  Natick Board of Health gets 200 Pond Rd. senior living pitch

Filed Under: Business, Health

It’s ‘GivingTuesday’: Please consider supporting Natick Report

November 28, 2023 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

It’s GivingTuesday, the global day of donating your time, money, or voice. Or as some independent news publishers call it, GivingNewsday.

GivingTuesday logoPlease consider supporting Natick Report, our small business launched in 2020 to deliver community news. Publishing the news is how we make a living.

We are a “for profit” organization, so your monetary donation is not tax deductible. We know you really must love us if you give. Contributions help us defray costs of web hosting, our newsletter service, tech support & more.

If you’re interested in becoming an advertising partner, that’s a great way to support us and reach our readers.

And let’s not overlook the gift of news tips, photos, and ideas: natickreport@gmail.com

Thank you,

Bob & Deborah

 

Filed Under: Business

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 218
  • Next Page »

Tip us off!

Please send news tips, photos, ideas to natickreport@gmail.com

If you’d like to contribute $ to support our independent journalism venture, please do….

Advertisements

Categories

  • Animals
  • Art
  • Bacon Free Library
  • Beyond Natick
  • Books
  • Boston Marathon
  • Business
  • Camps
  • Charity/Fundraising
  • Community
  • Construction
  • COVID-19
  • Education
  • Election
  • Embracing diversity
  • Employment/careers
  • Entertainment
  • Environment
  • Fashion
  • Fire
  • Food
  • Gardens
  • Government
  • Health
  • History
  • Holidays
  • Housing
  • Kids
  • Letters to the editor
  • Media
  • Military
  • Morse Institute Library
  • Music
  • Natick Election 2022
  • Natick Historical Society
  • Natick History Museum
  • Natick Mall
  • Natick Nest
  • Natick track
  • Neighbors
  • Obituaries & remembrances
  • Opinion
  • Outdoors
  • Parents
  • Police & crime
  • Real estate
  • Recycling Center
  • Religion
  • Restaurants
  • Schools
  • Seniors
  • Shopping
  • South Natick Dam
  • Sports
  • Technology
  • Theater
  • Town election 2021
  • Town Election 2023
  • Town Meeting
  • Transportation
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • Vacation
  • Veterans
  • Volunteering
  • Voting
  • Weather
lion publishers
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Get our email newsletter

* indicates required
Our newsletter is free, though we gladly accept contributions to support our work.

Most Read Posts

  • Natick's Union Street transformation continues with fresh tear downs
  • Natick Holiday Happenings 2023
  • Natick Board of Health talks grease traps & tobacco products (or not)
  • Natick School Committee debates need for separate pre-K playground at East School
  • Natick keeping its single tax rate

Click image to read The Swellesley Report

The Swellesley Report

Upcoming Events

Dec 3
9:00 am - 11:00 am

Frosty 5K road race

Dec 3
12:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Wellesley Square Holiday Stroll

Dec 3
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Wellesley Symphony Orchestra Holiday Concert

Dec 7
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Natick remembers Pearl Harbor

Dec 11
10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Fay School Classroom Visit Day

View Calendar

© 2023 Natick Report
Site by Tech-Tamer · Login