MONTAGUE — The controversial rezoning of a 15.6-acre parcel on Turnpike Road is off the table for the Oct. 10 Special Town Meeting, with the Selectboard instead opting to explore other locations for future manufacturing uses.
The Selectboard unanimously decided to leave Articles 16 and 17, which pertain to changing the land to General Business zoning, off the Special Town Meeting warrant following heavy opposition from residents both during Monday’s meeting and during the Planning Board’s Aug. 22 public hearing. Residents’ concerns over the proposed zoning change include the potential for increased traffic and noise, obstruction of emergency response, potential habitat damage and disturbance of a nearby cemetery.
Selectboard members were receptive, however, to a suggestion made by anti-rezoning advocacy group “REST IN PEACE” to research the feasibility of establishing another industrial park elsewhere to accommodate the proposed expansion of NE-XT Technologies (formerly Valley Steel Stamp), which had been eyeing the Turnpike Road parcel for a manufacturing facility. With a particular business in mind, residents had voiced opposition to contract zoning, described by REST IN PEACE organizer Evelyn Walsh as a zoning change that is “granted as a benefit to a developer or builder in a particular situation, rather than as the best possible decision guiding land use in the abstract.”
The vacant Turnpike Road lot, which lies between Judd Wire and the Department of Public Works, currently falls in a Neighborhood Business District that prohibits manufacturing or processing, multi-family dwellings of three units or more, and mixed-use buildings. Town Administrator Steve Ellis previously noted the town-owned parcel is “the last available 15-acre site that [Montague has] that has reasonably ready access to all utilities.”
Following a July 25 petition by the Planning Board to “allow a permit pathway for potential manufacturing or multi-family uses,” dozens packed into Montague Town Hall to oppose the zoning change at a two-hour hearing on Aug. 22. REST IN PEACE then penned a letter to the Selectboard on Sept. 4 that requested omission of related articles on the Special Town Meeting warrant. The letter was supported by signatures from 25 residents.
“We support the need for Montague to create a coordinated plan for a second industrial park to accommodate the needs of a number of potential tenants, but we cannot support this request for one tenant, which is a fragmented parcel-by-parcel approach,” the letter reads. “Montague has known for at least a decade that we were running out of space at the Airport Industrial Park, but this proposal to rezone one parcel with more than 200 residential homes, two cemeteries and nearly 15 acres of forested land is arbitrary and capricious.”
Elaborating at Monday’s meeting, Walsh expressed that the group would like to see a second industrial park “that is open to a number of potential tenants and one that does not disadvantage or disrupt residential properties as an outcome.”
Selectboard Chair Rich Kuklewicz agreed that exploring further alternatives to rezoning would be appropriate, opining that “there are too many questions” remaining to move the rezoning process forward at this time.
“It’s too much too soon,” Vice Chair Chris Boutwell added. “It needs a lot more investigation. I do not believe it belongs on this warrant.”
“I don’t believe that it belongs on this warrant,” Selectboard Clerk Matt Lord echoed before leaving the door open to rezoning as a possibility. “I do hope that we can move it forward on a different warrant.”
Kuklewicz said he spoke with Ellis prior to Monday’s meeting about “turning over the stones, so to speak, on where is the next place we could locate an industrial park if there is such an amount of land available for us.” He acknowledged some challenges to choosing viable land include the prevalence of protected land. At last month’s hearing, Ellis noted that other town land lacks vital utilities. One example is a 30-acre town-owned plot off West Mineral Road near the industrial park that lacks sewer access.
“The discussion I had with Steve is for the staff to start looking at those maps and start considering areas,” Kuklewicz said. “Then, we can start having public discussions and so forth, through the Planning Board and boards that are already set up to do that if we look to find an area.”
Kuklewicz added that “first pass doesn’t show very much area” that would be suitable for a new industrial park, noting that he and Ellis had explored whether the Turners Falls Municipal Airport might have any land to spare.
“There’s a lot of discussion to happen,” Kuklewicz concluded.
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.