The Select Board voted to skip having a Special Town Meeting this year. Members felt none of the potential Articles committees proposed was compelling enough to invest the effort in putting one on.
(Voters have the right to call one if they decide otherwise. But there’s nothing on the horizon that I’m aware of.)
The cost of putting on a one night Special Town Meeting is estimated as $12,000 and already budgeted for. Chair Andrew Dennington said that he was less concerned about spending that money and more about the work that is required to put on a productive meeting — both for their board and Town personnel.
Town Administrator Mark Purple said his team planned to launch the budget cycle for the 2024 Annual Town Meeting in September. The work involved in in a Special Town Meeting would set them back.
Dennington had asked boards/committees to let them know about any Articles they were considering for the Warrant if a meeting was held on October 17th. Last week, the board discussed a dozen potential Articles. None of the members saw anything that would “generate a lot of excitement”. Dennington thought several could probably pass under a “consent agenda” at Annual Town Meeting.
Some of the potential Articles requested funds (Fire Tower repairs, ambulance defibrillators, “phase one” of culvert replacements on Willow Street). Member Kathy Cook reminded that before Annual Town Meeting voted to approve Articles in March, they were presented the projected tax impacts for next year. She opposed bringing forward new financial requests that would increase taxes even more.
Dennington noted that last year the board discussed writing an Article to formalize having a regular Town Meeting in the fall. They ultimately decided against it in case there were years that it wasn’t needed. Member Sam Stivers pointed out that the general concept for a Fall Meeting was to pull out big items that require a lot of discussion that takes too much time away from the financial requests and related items.
The board agreed that the big zoning changes Planning is pursuing to comply with the state’s MBTA Communities regulations would fit that. But that won’t be ready in time for this fall. (Planning is targeting Annual Town Meeting.)
The only two zoning bylaw Articles that Planning was pursuing for this fall were to update wording in the Sign bylaw (to reflect the Downtown Zoning District created in 2021) and to allow Accessory Apartments “by right”.
One Article the board was considering bringing to voters themselves this fall is permission to petition the state legislature to abolish the Public Works Planning Board. (I’ll explain more about that when I tackle more of the board’s FY24 goals.) Dennington said it might be worth waiting until after the new DPW Superintendent has had time to think about what he’d like to see as a sounding board.
Residents can call a Special Town Meeting that the board is required to schedule within 45 days of submission of the petition. But it requires at least 200 registered Southborough voters to sign off. That’s only happened once since the blog was launched in mid-2008. (Though the threat of it happening was a reason behind a second.)
Purple noted that when he started the job, he was surprised to learn that Southborough didn’t have a Fall Town Meeting. Then starting with the Public Safety Building, it became a more regular occurrence.
Looking back at past coverage of Special Town Meetings, although many Articles have been on the Warrants over the years, there has always been at least one special reason that it was scheduled:
- Fall 2009 — Called by the board to approve purchasing an arial ladder truck. The Article had been pulled from Annual Town Meeting Warrant as not ready, with the promise that they would take it up at a special in the fall rather than waiting a year.
- Fall 2013 — The board initially planned to hold it for the Planning Board’s continually delayed attempt at a massive rewrite of all the Town’s zoning bylaws. They tried to cancel when Planning wasn’t ready, but Zoning Board of Appeals Chair Leo Bartolini claimed he was close to getting enough signatures to require a meeting for his Article (to have the Town Planner report to selectmen instead of the Planning Board). He later agreed to withdraw his Article, but other controversial Articles had already been added to the Warrant (about Medical Marijuana and Barn Hollow Open Space), that then failed to pass.
- Fall 2016 — Called by the board to revisit Main Street Reconstruction after it failed at the Annual Town Meeting.
- March 2017 — Called by the board to pass purchasing the golf course to build the Public Safety Building
- May 2018 — Called by petitioners after officials determined a prior petition was submitted too close to Annual Town Meeting to tack on their Articles. Those Articles were about the Zoning Board of Appeals (related to the board’s Park Central decisions).
- Cancelled – Fall 2020 — The board had announced that Annual Town Meeting Articles postponed that summer because of the pandemic would be handled at a fall meeting. Plans were cancelled when the board decided it couldn’t find an appropriate time to hold it.
- Fall 2021 — Called by the board to pass the Downtown District Zoning Bylaw to allow buildings with mixed residential and commercial use.
- Fall 2022 — Called by the board to avoid the May Annual Town Meeting being extended a second night. The Select Board promised the Planning Board’s Tree Bylaw Article would be first on their fall Warrant if they agreed to postpone it.
There was no Select Board discussion as to whether any of the potential Articles may be time sensitive. I reached out to Recreation Director Tim Davis to learn if the delay of Recreation’s Article would jeopardize their grant for a potential dog park at Lundblad Field. (Davis previously told the board that the foundation providing the grants is sunsetting next year.) I’ll update this post when I hear back.
Updated (7/21/23 1:11 pm): As promised, I’m sharing Davis’ response to my question about the impact of a delay on Rec’s proposed dog park. He responded:
This will not impact our ability, however it will push out our timeline. The grant requires that the project be bid and a contractor signed on prior to the end of 2024 – which is when the grant ends. With the loss of Fall TM, we will likely be looking at a Fall construction bid, rather than our hopeful Spring bid. This timeline is not set in stone, but is worst case scenario. We are still exploring options to keep to our original timeline.
