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Date: 12/29/2021
SOUTHWICK – The Planning Board effectively abandoned the idea of a moratorium on new large developments last week, and instead will explore other options to help Southwick avoid controversies like the public outcry against Carvana last summer.
Planning Board Chair Michael Doherty said during the Dec. 21 board meeting that he got the sense that the rest of the board would not support a moratorium on major commercial developments in Southwick as proposed by resident Diane Gale. Instead of a moratorium, Gale then proposed the idea that major development proposals must first come with a comprehensive impact statement, which would detail factors such as traffic impacts, water usage, potential pollutants, sewer connections, and other factors of a large development.
Doherty, who had worked with Gale to come up with the language for her initial moratorium proposal, said the idea behind her impact statement proposal is that it would force developers to put forth information right off the bat that the Planning Board and concerned residents would be seeking during the process anyway.
During last summer’s hearings over Carvana, which would have sited an automobile sales and storage lot on what is now farmland on College Highway, much of the information about the projected impacts of the project on traffic, water, and land use came out slowly over the course of a few months, which may have contributed to the drawn-out nature of the hearings. Doherty said that he thinks this idea would shorten public hearings for larger developments coming before the board.
“I look at it as helping the board by potentially getting more information right off the bat,” said Doherty.
Gale said that she modeled her new proposal after similar laws in different sized communities locally and across the country, and did so with some help from consultants and civil engineers.
Planning Board member David Sutton, who opposed Gale’s original development moratorium proposal, expressed concern over her new proposal because he thinks it could drive up costs which will be passed down the line to the taxpayers.
Doherty said that Gale’s updated proposal will be carried on the Planning Board’s agenda for the near future to continue the discussion.