GUY WEBB ‘Panic button’ pushed
Faced with a growing number of proposals for residential developments that were threatening to eat up valuable green space, two Worcester County communities recently tried to restrict building.
Earlier this month, residents of Templeton voted to limit the number of building permits issued over the next seven years to 30 a year.
Just two days earlier, a similar measure in Dudley – a college town about 60 miles south of Templeton – failed when it did not get the two-thirds votes it needed to pass.
The outcome in Templeton is just another example of what has been occurring in communities across the commonwealth.
Fearful that large-scale development and a growing population are overburdening town services, many communities are restricting growth and home construction.
But some community leaders – including Dudley’s Planning Board chairman – and homebuilders contend that over-restrictive building rules are driving the cost of housing up.
They say towns and cities need a more balanced approach to development and growth.
“A lot of those communities, when they see growth, they start to push the panic button,” said Guy Webb, executive director of the Builders Association of Central Massachusetts, which represents about 60 communities.
Webb said the proposed restrictions in Templeton and Dudley do not surprise him. Several communities in that region of the state have tried to limit construction and growth over the last few years.
Leicester, a neighboring town of Worcester, passed zoning changes about a year ago, while in Grafton, proposals to limit housing development were defeated about two years ago.
Currently, the town of Charlton, a neighbor of Dudley, is discussing whether to change zoning and increase lot-size requirements.
Most residents and town officials don’t realize the unintended consequences of building restrictions, like higher housing and land costs.
Towns that increase lot sizes to preserve open space are actually forcing developers to use more land and making it more difficult for towns to service homes that are spaced farther apart, Webb said.
The “knee-jerk reaction” communities have to growth, Webb said, usually leads to “overly drastic measures” that defeat the purpose of preserving open space, controlling growth and keeping housing affordable.
Instead of drastically limiting growth, builders like Webb support open space zoning and cluster developments that feature smaller lot sizes and preserve land within the housing projects.
A Master Plan
In Templeton, a rural community in North Central Massachusetts, residents were initially hesitant to accept any changes and restrictions on building, said Town Planner Cindy Butts.
The town has no zoning and planners unsuccessfully tried to establish a site review process last year, she said.
Residents, however, started to notice how out-of-town developers were scooping up land to build subdivisions. They also saw how the greater number of residents were straining town services, and leading to higher taxes, said Butts.
Just last month, plans were filed for a 57-home subdivision and another development that would include more than 30 homes, Butts said. And in the last year, more than 50 plans were filed.
After seeing developers clamoring with plans in hand, residents were eventually convinced that a growth management plan was needed for “environmental and financial reasons,” Butts said.
Planners decided on limiting building permits to 30 a year after looking at how many permits had been issued during the last 10 years, said Butts.
Butts, who moved from Quincy to Templeton six years ago, said more and more people are attracted to the town because of its easy access to Route 2, its low taxes and a brand new school that was recently built.
Last year, the town issued 46 permits for single-family homes, compared to 28 in 1999.
Meanwhile in Dudley, a rural town in South Central Massachusetts, the number of permits issued for single-family homes more than doubled in a three-year period.
Last year, the town issued 79 permits for single-family homes, while in 1999, 63 permits were issued. In 1998, only 33 permits were given for single-family homes.
Planning Board Chairman Martin Nieski said some town officials wanted to limit the number of permits to 36 a year and wanted to slow the growth and build-out of subdivisions.
But Nieski, who did not support either of the measures, said the town should follow the master plan that was passed last year instead of introducing building restrictions.
Nieski agrees with builders who say housing costs go up as the result of building limitations, and tells residents and town officials that if they want to preserve the rural nature of Dudley they should buy land when it’s up for sale.
He also doesn’t believe that more housing development drains town services.
“What’s the strain?” asked Nieski.
Nieski, who has lived in Dudley all his life and been a Planning Board member for 15 years, said the town has changed over the years.
When he was younger, the town had 25 dairy farms. Today, two dairy farms remain. And while the price of an existing home is about $145,000, newly built homes are selling for $250,000 to $300,000, he said.
“The cows are gone and they are not coming back,” he said.
