43D in Sharon

By , August 7, 2008 7:46 am

For several months now, I’ve been looking at Ch. 43D – the expedited permitting law. I can tell you that it rarely shows up in my google alerts and that there seems to be few towns that have adopted it. At the last Middleboro town meeting, there were two articles on the warrant that would haved created 43D areas. I was against those articles because I felt(and still feel) that the town has not done enough study of 43D.

In my estimation, 43D was not intended for rural development – it is meant to be a revitalization tool for blighted city areas. Based on the general lack of adoption, and the fairly complex changes required to town processes, I am 100% against this until the town has down some real research on it. Unlike CPA, which looks better and better the more I look at it, 43D hasn’t captured my fancy. As one person put it – “It looks like 40B meets Walmart”. Good one.

Chapter 43D is a pretty complex law and has to be studied carefully. One would have to consider whether it was being targeted for a rural area, a suburban commercial district, or an urban area.

Now an interesting application of 43D in Sharon. It seems that they designated Post Office square – one of the main commercial areas in town – for 43D development. They applied for and received a $100K grant to come up with economic and wastewater studies.

The Square consists of 60-65 properties with 42 owners, Hauser said. While only two to three percent of property in the town is zoned commercial, seven percent of this commercial property is concentrated in the Square, Hauser said. According to his group’s assessment, the properties in the square provide 14 percent of the town’s total commercial revenue. The goal must be first, to sustain this revenue, and second, to increase this revenue, he concluded. Saying he was putting the goal into engineer-speak, Hauser said, the “objective function” is “we want to maximize revenue and fun and we want to minimize traffic, parking and water.”

Fall Town Meeting approved designating the downtown commercial area a Ch. 43D area – becoming the first town center 43D district in the state. The town subsequently wrote a grant to the state under Ch. 43D – a law allowing expedited permitting for businesses that hope to relocate to certain designated commercial areas – of the state’s general laws, requesting $100,000 in redevelopment funds. It was granted, according to the Town Administrator’s office. The EDCC, Hauser said, is in the process of spending the funds on three studies on various aspects of Post Office Square.

Boston-based Land Strategies is conducting the first study, looking at different economic growth scenarios for the square: exploring current revenue figures as well as projected revenue scenarios with assorted businesses. It will also seek community input on “what stores can work,” Hauser said. Selectmen allotted $40,000 of the grant money be spent on the study.

Wright-Pierce, a regional engineering firm, is conducting the second study, examining ways to solve the wastewater management issues in the square. Selectmen allotted $43,800 for the group to study wastewater solutions. According to Hauser, the firm will look at how much demand there currently is, how much there could be, and how feasible it is to expect the waste water system to handle the increased demand. Ultimately, the cost to property owners may be lessened through state grants, Hauser said. The group should be ready to present three-quarters of the study at an Aug. 28 meeting.

McCabe Enterprises, also of Boston, is conducting the third study, for “streamlined permitting documentation and project coordination and public communications” relating to the Square’s revitalization. The cost is $10,000. The group will present initial findings at a Sept. 25 community meeting.

I would be interested to know what investigation Sharon did before deciding to adopt Ch. 43D and how this thing works out for it.

categories Middleboro

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