Residents upset by another delay in public hearing
By Karen Mann Journal Correspondent

Residents were upset that a public hearing to discuss the Woods of Westminster project was postponed once again.

The applicants, the Barkus family of Westminster, are seeking a special permit for their project, which would require the positive vote of at least four board members. Because only four of the five planning board members were in attendance at the meeting, the applicants requested the hearing be continued to a later date.

The planning board granted the second continuance, which did not make the roomful of attendees happy. The hearing had already been continued once by the board because of time constraints during their Oct. 23 meeting.

"This is a joke," said resident Nick Hay. "There is a town meeting tomorrow night. Unless there is a death in the family or an illness, you should be here."

The Woods of Westminster proposal calls for building a cluster subdivision off Bean Porridge Hill Road. Had voters approved the golf/residential open space community bylaw at the special town meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 14, the Barkus' could redesign the subdivision to coincide with the new zoning bylaw. Voters rejected the measure.

Wesley Flis, a project engineer from Whitman and Bingham Associates, asked board members if he could briefly show the two different plans under the two different zoning bylaws.

The proposal currently before the planning board calls for building 141 lots on 100 acres of land, with no limit on the number of bedrooms in each house. According to Flis, they would probably be four- or five-bedroom houses, because most people don't want anything smaller these days.

"I know the concern is children and how it affects the schools with subdivisions," Flis said.

If the bylaw passed allowing for a golf overlay district, the Barkuses and Flis said they would present a different plan.

They would build up to 266 two-bedroom condominiums. Flis said this alternative would require using only 44 acres of land.

Since two-bedroom dwellings are not geared toward families, half of the lots in this second proposal would be for residents 55-years-and-older, he said. The planning board could change this number, but at the meeting members said the proposal matches their desire to have 50 percent of the units be senior housing.

Thirteen of the other lots, or 10 percent, would be used for Ch. 40B low-income housing.

Flis said the single-family house design is very rigid.

"There would be more of an impact to the buffer zones and wetlands. It is more impervious," said Flis.

Board Chairman Andrew Sears said he and his colleagues' think the second design is the better option.

"The overall goal here is to do what is best for the town," said Sears. "With the second one, we can work on our 10 percent affordable housing and it is less impervious."

The public hearing to discuss the definitive plans for the first subdivision design will be held on Monday, Nov. 27, at 8:30 p.m. in the Eloranta Room at the Forbush Memorial Library.

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Karen Mann is a 2006 graduate of Emerson College, in Boston, where she studied journalism. She resides in Townsend.