Walpole Planning Board to Weigh Proposed Zoning Law Changes at Tonight’s Meeting

By Charles C. Bingaman, Contributing Writer

          The Walpole Planning Board will decide at tonight’s 7:30 p.m. meeting in Town Hall whether to clarify Walpole’s zoning law on the size of permitted new commercial buildings as part of proposals to incorporate the town’s Master Plan into its planning and zoning law.

          Among other agenda items, the citizens’group Walpole Tomorrow has been seeking to get the Board to clarify existing provisions of Walpole’s zoning law limiting new commercial buildings to 40,000 square feet to prevent developers from building larger buildings and then arguing that the 40,000 square foot limit only applies to individual businesses within them.  Recently Berkshire Development USA of Springfield, Massachusetts, recently announced its evolving plans to build a 40,000 square foot grocery store in a 60,000 square foot building that would also house three or four additional businesses.

          In other Walpole Tomorrow proposals to be considered tonight, the Planning Board will decide whether to update the preamble to Walpole’s Zoning Ordinance to state explicitly that it incorporates the town Master Plan’s goals and objectives.  Such goals and objectives include, as suggested in New Hampshire Revised Statutes, Title LXIV, chapter 674, “1) to preserve the scenic elements of the natural environment and protect Walpole’s land, 2) to promote balanced growth, 3) to guide the character of development, 4) to protect the historic nature, the economic an aesthetic interests of the entire Town, and 5) to provide aesthetically pleasing and compatible design of buildings and facilities with as much open natural and landscaped areas as possible.”

          Walpole Tomorrow is also proposing to clarify the purposes of the existing Site Plan Review procedures to meet the goals of the Master Plan.  The clarification retains the current language but breaks it out into 18 separately stated goals to better guide planning/zoning applicants and the boards in applying the law.  Further, Walpole tomorrow is proposing to alter the current law that provides that “An impact analysis study may be required, which takes into account the following items to the extent the Board deems applicable” to read that, “On all projects involving 10,000 square feet of floor space or more an impact analysis study will be required, which takes into account the following items to the extent the Board deems applicable.”

            At the Planning Board’s October 25 “working” meeting, members of the Board discussed various approaches to the issues.   Following that meeting, John P. Hansel, co-chair of Walpole Tomorrow, said, “I think we were all pleasantly surprised by the reception we received when we reviewed our proposals for changes in the Site Plan Regulations and Zoning Ordinance.” 

“I was especially pleased,” Hansel continued, “with the response to our most important proposal, namely the suggested change to the Zoning Ordinance requiring that no single retail establishment should be more than 40,000 square feet whether a single store or several.”