Business owners on Leonard Street pleaded with town officials Thursday night to consider their concerns as they draft language for a zoning overlay in downtown Belmont.
Chief among the concerns was parking, particularly with respect to the Claflin Lot.
“If we lose that parking lot for any period of time, we will lose businesses in Belmont Center,” Mary Thomajan, owner of Westcott Mercantile on Leonard Street, said at an Economic Development Committee meeting Thursday night. “We will. … I’m not saying we can’t have development in town … but it’s tricky. It’s tricky on so many levels.”
Planning Board Chair Taylor Yates, however, reassured business owners on Thursday that despite previous iterations of the draft zoning that envisioned Claflin Street developed as a “second Main Street” with the parking lot including a structured parking deck, the board—just two days prior—had removed the Claflin lot from the overlay district pending further study. Those studies, he noted, won’t be completed in time for the spring Annual Town Meeting that the Planning Board has set as a target date for presenting new zoning for consideration.
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Yates said Claflin was removed because of concerns raised by business owners at a previous Belmont Center Business Association meeting.
“This entire plan has been informed by public input,” Yates emphasized at the Economic Development Committee meeting, where he spoke after business owners had their opportunity to weigh in. “The Planning Board has no skin in the game… other than to present Town Meeting choices.”
The review of Belmont Center’s zoning stems from a 2008 report, “A Planning Vision for Belmont Center,” according to Yates. That report recommended establishing an overlay zoning district, possibly using form-based zoning that provides guidelines to influence the physical design of a new development. According to Director and Town Planner Chris Ryan, zoning overlays offer a second set of options for property owners that go beyond what is permitted based on the basic, or underlying zoning, of a particular area in town. In the case of Belmont Center, this could mean additional height on buildings or new uses permitted.
Unlike use-based code, which establishes zoning districts based on uses the town wants to see and backfills dimensional criteria, form-based code pre-establishes the dimensional and structural or design elements the town wants to see.
“I know we need to increase the commercial tax base in town. … I know the constraints of what we’re going through as a town,” said Belmont Center Business Association President Deran Muckjian, who owns The Toy Shop of Belmont. “I’m also concerned about what we’re envisioning for the center. I feel any major disruption will disrupt our everyday life in the center for small businesses.”
Others, including Katherine Venzke of Helena’s, a boutique clothing store on Leonard Street, advocated for hiring an economic development coordinator to market the town and attract new businesses. Ryan emailed Friday morning, saying that while he supports the idea, “it isn’t currently feasible.”
“What is feasible and which will occur, is that once the Office of Planning and Building has a new planner on board, my role will be able to assume, over time, more economic development duties and tasks, which should begin to address this issue,” he wrote.
Lee Gaston, who owns Bessie Blue on Leonard Street, said while parking was a major concern, the impact of any construction resulting from the overlay also needs to be considered.
“If a developer comes in and decides to develop any portion of what would get approved with this zoning, we’re all done for,” Gaston said.
On top of that, with new development comes the potential for higher rents, she said— rents only big box stores would likely be able to afford.
“You’re taking away a small town and trying to make a big city development,” she said.
On Friday, Yates said Gaston’s concern was an interesting one that he hadn’t heard raised before.
“There are things you can do in zoning to address those things,” he said, particularly when using form-based zoning. “You’re allowed to regulate the character of your town. As long as you’re doing it that way, you can deal with stuff like that.”
As for construction, the Planning Board discussed on Tuesday ways to mitigate the impact projects may have on existing businesses, including the possibility of limiting the number of building permits on an annual basis, or implementing zoning changes in phases — the latter of which board members seemed least receptive to.
“I really did mean it when I said I wish people would come to Planning Board meetings,” he said. “There’s no malice …. We really just want to do right by Belmont and fulfill our responsibility to Belmont.”
Yates clarified that as it stands, there is no guarantee that the Belmont Center zoning changes will appear on a Town Meeting warrant. That is in the Select Board’s hands.
“We’re going to do our due diligence,” he said. “I don’t know if it will make it on the agenda for Town Meeting. The Planning Board can make recommendations. We’re working on it as if May is the target date … Our due diligence is guided around that assumption. But who knows, maybe we’ll discover something that pushes us off, just like Clafflin — we realized we don’t have as good of an answer on parking as we thought we would at this point.”
At Thursday night’s meeting, Mary Thomajan of Westcott Mercantile said the biggest thing is for business owners to be heard.
“There are things we see as business owners that nobody else sees,” she said.
