Monday, February 4, 2013

Peace Abbey Potential Development

The Planning Board has 3 zoning articles on the warrant for the 2013 Annual Town Meeting (which is scheduled for Saturday, May 4 at 10:00 AM at Lindquist Commons). Two of the three articles (along with a non-zoning article) pertain to the potential development at the North Main Street property that was once the home of the Peace Abbey.

One of the articles would rezone all of the subject property from Residential A to EA (one section of it is already EA, which stands for Elderly and Affordable). One of the requirements for rezoning to EA is that there be a Preliminary Development Plan presented to and approved at Town Meeting. A Preliminary Development Plan has not yet been presented. However, the general concept at this point is to construct several new units of age-restricted housing. The former Peace Abbey building may be used for other uses. 

The second related article would allow limited retail, office and assisted living uses in an EA district. This would provide some alternative uses for the existing building while potentially offering services to the residents of the new units as well as Woodhaven and Leland Farms (and others).

The third article, which is not a zoning article, would convey a small amount of Town-owned land from the Woodhaven parcel to the new owner of the Peace Abbey property. The conveyance would be done in accordance with state and local laws which govern such transfers of ownership. The conveyance would provide the opportunity to tie the new development into Village Way and allow the current driveway on North Main Street to be closed. It would also provide land area for a septic system and bring the total land area of the project up to the minimum of 6 acres.

The Planning Board has scheduled a hearing on these articles (and a third article to allow one retail outlet within a Planned Unit Development to include a maximum of 6000 square feet of gross floor area (the current limit is 2500 for all retail outlets) at its meeting of Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at 7:00 PM.