Exit 4 Zoning
Inches Forward
By M. D. Drysdale

Ten months after the Randolph Planning Commission thought it had approved an important new zoning plan for Exit 4, the proposal still has not come before the town selectmen.

Furthermore, the proposal, which last summer commanded widespread approval, has now engendered controversy that led Commission Chair Scott Berkey to resign, vowing to oppose the commission’s proposal when it goes before the selectboard, which will probably be next month.

The Planning Commission, under vice chair Julie Iffland, hoped to complete its work last week Thursday but was not able to, and scheduled another session for this week.

On May 10, 2007, the planners voted to approve a complicated ordinance that protects viewsheds, establishes design controls, and prohibits stand-alone retail stores at Exit 4. However, it would also have allowed substantial acreage to be available for mixed use such as residential, offices, outdoor recreation, or light manufacturing.

A June hearing on the zoning proposal—which was seven years in the works—elicited an unusually broad show of approval.

However, just weeks later, a letter from the Planning Commission’s attorney, Steve Stitzel, found serious legal flaws with the zoning proposal. Experts at Two Rivers Regional Planning Commission backed up Stitzel’s comments.

The lawyer’s most sweeping criticism was that the Exit 4 zone purported to be a single district but it was actually four. Each of the four quadrants at the interchange had been treated slightly differently, Stitzel pointed out. Also, he said, the commission had not established sufficient written rationale when it divided the acreage into "restricted," "limited," and "preferred" areas for development.

Back to Work

Responding to Stitzel’s comments, the planners went back to work, breaking the single district into four zones, one for each quadrant.

In doing so, however, according to Berkey, the board began adding additional restrictions in some of the quadrants.

He charged that in the process, the commission dropped an important aspect of the original intent, which was that much of the area should be available for a variety of uses, including light manufacturing, as long as strict design guidelines—some 22 of them—were adhered to.

In the end, Berkey said, "only one quadrant is truly zoned for mixed use." Two of the quadrants are "pretty much zoned residential," he said. The amount of lot coverage that would be permitted was also reduced, he said.

Berkey had already been uneasy with some of the restrictions placed on landowners in the area, and he thought the recent changes made the document unacceptable. Accordingly, he resigned from the Planning Commission at the end of the meeting on Feb. 14.

In a letter to the selectboard, he said he intends to work with other citizens "to insure that the proposed Interchange District regulations are never adopted."

He told The Herald last week that he hopes to convince the selectboard to make enough changes that he and others of like mind can support it and the long-sought zoning districts can finally be created.

Iffland noted Friday that last Thursday’s meeting, which was attended by several landowners, made a few changes that pulled back on restrictions. The final version, together with a new map showing the zones, should be ready after this week’s meeting, she said.

At that point, the zoning proposal would go to a public meeting and then to the selectboard, which must hold its own hearing before deciding whether to adopt the proposal, Iffland noted.