Here is where we stand with regard Billerica Center.
This time last year I was in the middle of holding a series of public meetings and presentations which were intended to introduce the concept of Smart Growth and how it might apply in Billerica. Since then, a mixed use overlay district has failed twice in Town Meeting.
Spring 2010 will be the first time in five meetings that the overlay district was not in the warrant book. (It was withdrawn the first two times.) While the zoning change has not made it into the code yet, support is steadily growing. The first step was the Planning Board itself, which voted 3-3 the first time around to not recommend the article in Spring of ‘08 (then 6-0 the second time), and then with TM. The first vote was 91-89, but the second was 99-63, 8 votes short with 77 TMMs missing from the vote tally.
Our former Town Manager quit after negative comments about the appearance of the town’s commercial districts (“to them, Wendy’s is a wonderful thing, etc.”). The new Manager, John Curran, expressed support for mixed use during the interview process and comes from a town (Maynard) that has a large and thriving mixed use center.
And now we have elections coming up for the first time since both TM votes. Will the town center be an issue for voters? Growth strategy may be an issue for the two Selectman’s seats. The Planning Board Chairman (Paul Marasco) will challenge the two incumbents. Will Marasco’s interest in improving the center attract voters? What about the PB race, where no fewer than six people are running for three seats? Who will have a viable vision for the center?
How long will shoppers put up with old Billerica Mall? The Mall lost a tenant since last year (Lincoln Liquors), which was replaced by a dollar store. The landlord has made some improvements, but also got in trouble for mold and had a carbon monoxide leak. Otherwise, very little has transpired at 480 Boston Road, except that the place is another year older and closer to a roof cave-in.
That brings us to this question: Will we ever have new development in the center, and what will it be?
The answer lies in the gap between the “build nothings” and the “Smart Growthers.” The “build nothings” have dug in their heels and have decided to hold up progress on any zoning change, while the “Smart Growthers” are closely watching the elections to see if the political climate will change enough this April to try TM again.
At this point, each side should ask themselves the following:
1. Do you want the center to improve? If yes, what is that improvement (the vision)?
2. If so, how can this be done without a zoning amendment?
Most of “build nothings” don’t want to improve at all. They believe there is nothing wrong with the center and it should be left alone. Others cling to the old Home Depot model (Billerica Mall 2.0) for a quick spruce-up. The problem is, though, that the abutters don’t want Billerica Mall 2.0, as we learned during the HD process, and the PB backed them up.
After cries of “Have you got a better idea?” the “Smart Growthers” stepped forward with a vision of mixed use. But they were rebuffed.
So we are now at a classic political impasse.
The root of this difference in perspectives can be articulated with a horse and cart analogy. Those opposed to the zoning amendment want to see the developer’s project first (the horse) and then they will vote the overlay district (the cart). This, they believe, will give them an iron-clad guarantee that the project is acceptable and will not ruin the town. (There is also a palpable anti-developer sentiment in this group, and they see a zoning change as somehow playing right into developers’ devious hands.)
But this plan is not feasible because no developer will spent dime one on a proposal that needs a 2/3 approval from a body that can’t agree on what it wants.
That is why the zoning amendment is the horse, not the cart. Once the town leadership sends the message to the development community that we want Smart Growth, only then we will see some activity. In the meantime, we are dangerously exposed to an “as of right” retail explosion on Boston Road at the hands of a drag-and-drop developer. Billerica Mall 3.0, in other words, which may be worse than the last, may be coming and we would be powerless to stop it.
In summary, I hope that this issue will be a big one this election season, and that it catches the attention of voters. If instead it turns out to be the same old boring campaign, we will be left with more of the same in the center for at least another year.
Which is nothing.