EAST LONGMEADOW — The Town Council voted to withdraw the Center Town District Bylaw without prejudice after Councilor Jim Leydon took issue with the bylaw as presented at its Dec. 9 meeting.
“I do not agree with the layer of bureaucratic regulation nor the mandates that this bylaw seeks to create,” Leydon said.
Leydon said that for a two and a half year process, the bylaw presented was lacking in depth for what the council was looking at, referring to it as a “bare-bones bylaw setting some perimeters of what we want to see.”
The town has discussed certain goals for the Center Town District in the past to make it “a thriving core,” according to Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Planner Aodhan Hemeo-McMahon. This included walkability, accessibility and a diverse housing stock potentially under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40R, which requires mixed-use districts and affordable housing.
Councilor Marilyn Richards seconded Leydon’s motion for discussion and said that most of the bylaw was centered around residential property. She said she believes they could do some more work on it but added that if the residential pieces were taken out, then there wouldn’t be much of the bylaw left.
“Most of it has to do with residential high density housing, and while the rationale for doing high density housing isn’t an issue for me, it’s the density itself,” Richards said. “I don’t want to see any housing go in until we can improve the infrastructure that’s in the area.”
Richards added that in previous discussions, the residential piece wasn’t really talked about, but moreso the opportunity for adding housing on the upper levels of businesses for a mixed-use district.
“Bylaws come to us first and it’s our responsibility to decide if it’s worthy to go to the Planning Board, “ Richards said. “For me to send this to the Planning Board, it sends a message that I think it’s okay and I don’t … I don’t know how we missed the mark, truly.”
Councilor Kathleen Hill followed Richards’ point and said that she would “like to see the issue of moving around the immediate rotary, or what will become the center square district” resolved before considering any available housing opportunities.
“I’d like to see something that’s a little more holistic in terms of what the town would envision as the Center District,” Leydon said. He added that most of what has played out with the Steering Committee and with development is not “reflected accurately or holistically in the way the bylaw is written.”
Richards recommended looking at criteria for setbacks and the idea of having buildings right up to the curb with parking in the back to increase walkability and accessibility. If they had any new buildings, she said more criteria could be suitable to enhance what they’re trying to do with a user-friendly town center. She said there is value to what they’re doing, but the bylaw doesn’t address it.
Council President Connor O’Shea said he didn’t necessarily agree with Leydon’s motion to remove the bylaw from the table. He said that he didn’t agree or disagree with the opinions presented on the bylaw’s language, but the decision to not refer it to the Planning Board is “too preemptive at this point.”
“If we voted in favor of that, that would mean that we’re now not discussing anything relating to the Center Town District for at least six months, per the council rules,” O’Shea said. “I don’t think that’s doing a good service to the residents of the town if we’re preventing that discussion from happening.”
O’Shea explained that referring to the Planning Board is just the first step in the process and it allows them to recommend something else, regardless if they agree with it or not.
“This is really the forum for us to all publicly state what our opinions are and what we think should be included or not included in that,” O’Shea said. “But we’re kinda cutting that discussion off before it even happened.”
O’Shea said the motion wouldn’t allow the opportunity to provide any other options or for the Planning Board to work with them and that he would be voting against it. He would allow the town to withdraw what was presented and allow more collaborative work.
Town Manager Tom Christensen said that the current bylaw language is “immaterial,” and that this is just the first process towards exploring if the Center Town District as a whole is a good idea.
“This is meant to start the discussion, and whether or not you think we should have a discussion about a center town district,” Christensen said. “If you think we should, the idea just gets sent to planning. So, simply put, the piece of paper could have just said ‘proposed center town district, mixed use, some density,’ is that a good idea?”
Leydon asked Christensen why it didn’t say that, and Christensen replied “because [the bylaw’s] language we submitted.” Leydon said he believes the language is important and should be specific.
“If the objective was to then take this to the Planning Board and start anew and start fresh and put those ideas in there, great,” Leydon said. “I think as presented, I can’t vote for that or support it.”
Christensen said he wouldn’t have to vote on it for six months because it would be going to planning for “however many public hearings.”
“The last bylaw we talked about, of this size, of this ilk, they talked about for two years,” Christensen said. “I don’t think the initial submittal language is gonna derail a good product a year and a half from now.”
Christensen said that if the bylaw was “way off from what everyone expected,” then he would submit a different language.
Council Vice President Anna Jones said that they “needed to meet in the middle.” She added that if they removed the bylaw how Leydon intends, then it may set a timeline they don’t want to waste six months with. She added that if they recommend something to the Planning Board, they would want to feel good about it. “I think we need to work a little bit more together on this to get this going,” Jones said. “We all want this, right? It just needs to make more sense for us.”
If the bylaw were withdrawn without prejudice, O’Shea said that he wanted to start discussions in January before drafting language.
“I think part of the problem is, certain individuals may have made their points known, but I don’t think collectively as a council we’ve really given any direction to the administrative folks on the town side to say ‘what do we want them to draft,’” O’Shea said.
Leydon said he was willing to rescind the motion and move forward because he wants “terrific new development in the center,” but what isn’t sitting right with him is being given reassurances in the past and still having discussions.
“You said this is part of a process, but for people who would read about it and see it, they don’t understand that,” Leydon said. “For me personally, it’s almost a betrayal of how I ran in saying that. I’ve had conversations and nothing has moved forward since … I really wanna move forward on this. I don’t wanna be sitting here six months from now having the same conversation.”
Leydon withdrew his motion to remove the bylaw, and the council voted to withdraw the bylaw without prejudice to discuss it collectively during the first meeting in January.
