Editor’s note: Redevelopment Authority Chair Johanna Leighton serves on the Carver Journal’s Board of Directors. She had no involvement in the reporting, writing, editing or review of this article prior to publication.
The Carver Planning Board and Redevelopment Authority floated zoning plans for a 40R development, which could bring dense commercial and residential property to North Carver, during a joint meeting on Tuesday, May 26.
Town officials viewed a conceptual plan from surveyor Art Borden that could fit 20,000 square feet of retail space and three-story multifamily homes at 130 N. Main St. behind the Nouria gas station in North Carver.
If moved forward with, the zoning could fulfill Carver’s requirement to zone for multifamily housing under the contentious MBTA Communities Act. The town overwhelmingly rejected an MBTA-compliant zoning plan at a Special Town Meeting in October.
Town Planner Sean Lewis said that the zoning could also net the town of Carver up to $1.2 million in incentive payments from the state, which would go to the town’s general fund.
Lewis said that the 40R Smart Growth zoning does not require anything to be built, though it’s unlikely that it would not be developed.
“We could do this zoning and then nothing could get built, that is a possibility,” he said. “I don’t see it as a good possibility, but it could happen.”
40R Smart Growth Zoning would see Carver working with a developer while altering the town’s zoning, unlike a 40B development, which could allow the developer to bypass the town’s zoning requirements entirely upon approval from the state.
“In my experience with 40B is that the state will side with the developer in disputes over the housing,” Lewis said. “So if they ask for a height variance or waiver, they’re going to get it.”
Choosing the 40R Smart Growth plan would likely keep the town in control over regulations on a future development.
Planning Board Chair Alan Germain said that the plan also avoids having Carver take a firm stance on the state’s controversial zoning law. By having residents vote for 40R Smart Growth Zoning, Germain said that the town would “check the box” for 3A, the MBTA zoning law, without taking a vote to accept it.
“That’s the whole secret and the key to it,” Germain said. “So when they change the law five years from now and they want to make 3A more than it currently is, we never accepted it.”
Planning Board member Mari Ellen Williams has been a vocal critic of the MBTA Communities Act, but felt compelled to act after Attorney General Andrea Campbell sued Carver in late April for being out of compliance with the law.
“The only reason why I am in support of this [40R] project is because the developer is putting something there, and if he’s going to put something there, it will likely be a 40B project.”
At the end of the discussion about the 40R district, planning board member Mari Ellen Williams criticized comments made by Redevelopment Authority Chair Johanna Leighton at the authority’s last meeting on Tuesday, May 12. During that meeting, Leighton incorrectly said that the planning board had already passed 40R zoning.
“I don’t understand why every time you talk about this planning board, you have to say things that are just not true or you misinform people, of which you did at your last meeting in a public forum,” Williams said.
Leighton did not deny the statement, but said that her comments brought her to the joint meeting, which she said was Lewis’s suggestion to “clear it up.”
“We don’t want ambiguity, we want to be able to understand what’s going on, so he took the right path, that’s why we’re here tonight,” Leighton said. “To listen and to also ask questions…”
Williams then asked Leighton to apologize for a comment she made about Lewis during the May 12 meeting. Upon reviewing that meeting, Leighton made the comment while the redevelopment authority was discussing inviting Lewis, who was introduced as Carver’s new town planner in March, to join one of their meetings.
“Now he’s so new, he’s not going to know anything other than the planning board has a 40R,” Leighton said during the May 12 meeting. “That’s all he’s going to know, because he’s just learning.”
Leighton told Williams she didn’t remember what she meant by the comment and would “have to go back.”
“Well I’m not going to say apologize, because I’m glad you watched the meeting,” Leighton said. “I’m glad you watched and I hope everybody else watches the meeting.”
Germain ultimately criticized the role of the Redevelopment Authority in the 40R process.
“We’ve got three different boards looking at three different things,” Germain said. “So with no disrespect, you guys do your thing, let us do our thing, you keep doing your thing, and somewhere along the line we’re going to converge.”
Watch the tense exchange on the Area 58 Carver YouTube page here.
As of now, the town planner is developing language for a plan that could go to a future Town Meeting. Should the zoning plan move forward, residents would have the ultimate say whether to accept a 40R district.
Contact Nick Mossman at nick@carverjournal.com
