Condos on Main Street?

A selectman is proposing to allow multi-unit dwellings in the area of Old Town Hall on Main Street. Selectman Rob Garrity is touting a plan to allow four to eight units per acre and up to eight to 16 bedrooms per acre as a means of trying to jumpstart commercial development in Norfolk Center, which is known in the town’s zoning code as the B-1 District.

“You want a town center that supports commercial,” Gar­rity said during the selectmen’s meeting this past Thursday morning. “… You need more doors.”

The theory is to provide nearby customers for the stores, shops, and restaurants that town officials hope to encourage to come into the town center. Garrity suggested such a residential development could “bookend the town,” complementing Norfolk Town Center Condominiums on the hill above Norfolk Town Hall.

“I think everybody agrees this is a fairly nice develop­ment,” Garrity said. “… Why can’t we allow this kind of thing to happen by right in the B-1?”

As an example of what might be built, Garrity pointed to the lots on the north side of Main Street a little west of Old Town Hall. “You could support an eight-pack on one of the larger 3-acre sites, and it would be off the street,” Garrity said. But another town official said the idea comes with plenty of problems that need to be worked out. John Weddleton, a member of the town’s Zoning Bylaw Study Committee and a local developer, said allowing such de­velopments by right would be a bad idea, and that at most the town should consider allowing them with a special permit.

A special permit process gives town boards more control over an application, since it’s much harder for a builder to get a court to overturn a local board’s decision. Weddleton said that developer Paul Borrelli’s initial design for Norfolk Town Center Condominiums called for “five four-story vinyl buildings,” which he suggested would have looked terrible on the hill looming over the town center. If the town allows such developments by right, Weddleton said, “You take what somebody sticks to you.” Weddleton wondered if such a scheme might amount to spot zoning, unfairly favoring a few parcels over others in town. “And the other thing is: Are we putting the cart before the horse? Without infrastructure in town — without drainage and gas — nothing moves,” Weddleton said. He was referring to the town’s continuing efforts to allow land owners to tie into an existing stormwater drainage sys­tem in the town center and to entice a utility to bring natural gas to the town center.

But Garrity said the spot zoning complaint seems far­fetched, and that the infrastructure improvements can be ad­dressed. “My thing is if you have the push to do these things, they get done,” Garrity said.

Garrity also conceded that requiring a special permit might be a good idea. Garrity noted that the proposal has met with a mixed reaction from the Zoning Bylaw Study Committee. Weddleton called Garrity’s proposal “a great idea,” but suggested he was pushing it too quickly before the details could be worked out.

After hearing the discussion Selectman Jim Lehan, board chairman, said such an idea needs support from that com­mittee and other potentially interested boards like the Eco­nomic Development Committee before going to Town Meet­ing floor. While Garrity had initially pressed to include the zoning change in the warrant of annual Town Meeting in May, he even­tually

suggested that Special Town Meeting in the fall might be better timing for it. “There’s no burning reason to do this in the spring,” Gar­rity said. “…But I want to get something going. We’ve been spinning around in development circles for years.”