In Hopkinton, it's on your mark, get set, grow!

PHOTO/MATT VOLPINI Elaine Lazarus, Hopkinton's director of land use, planning and permitting, said the town's approach to development is "all about achieving balance," letting the business base catch up with growth in residential development.

PHOTO/MATT VOLPINI Colella's, a downtown mainstay for years, has been sold.

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By Sam Bonacci

As residential development booms in Hopkinton, a more business-friendly attitude among town officials is aiming to broaden the business base to help balance population growth.

The town’s location at the intersection of Route 495 and the Massachusetts Turnpike has long made it popular for those looking to settle in a community with a rural character and that provides a reasonable work commute. Hopkinton’s popularity is also enhanced every April when thousands of runners descend upon downtown — as they will next week — in the town’s role as the starting point for the Boston Marathon.

With 14,925 residents in 2010, according to U.S. Census data, Hopkinton grew 11.8 percent since 2000. And those numbers are expected to climb as new developments come online. Current housing projects include roughly 1,000 units at Legacy Farms and 280 on Lumber Street, within three miles of downtown. Ron Foisy, secretary of the Hopkinton Chamber of Commerce, estimates that the town’s population could top 20,000 within 10 years.

“Hopkinton is blessed geographically … and it also has a great heritage of having a great community and a great school system,” he said. “The challenge we face is finding a balance.”

Chamber goal: Tax base with 20 percent business

The town is residential-heavy, and officials and community members are pushing to add more business and reach more of an economic equilibrium.

While Hopkinton’s commercial tax base relies heavily on EMC Corp., the data storage giant, the town wants a mix of both large companies and smaller biotech startups, says Elaine Lazarus, the town’s director of land use, planning and permitting. Such an approach can help grow the business base from about 16 to 17 percent of all taxable property to reach the chamber’s goal of 20 percent by 2020.

And in the wake of recent residential projects, the town’s Planning Board has a renewed eye toward commercial development, Lazarus says.

“(The Planning Board’s members) have concertedly tried to be more (business) friendly. The town has set aside land for this purpose. Why not make it work?” she said. “There is a thought that it might be time to slow down with (residential growth) and let the commercial catch up. It’s all about achieving that balance.”

There has been a growing friendliness to business in the last five to seven years, chamber President Scott Richardson says. A number of zoning initiatives that have allowed the commercial base to expand have been supported by the board and adopted at Town Meeting, he said. Those initiatives have included the formation of overlay districts that allow additional types of development, such as homes in a commercial zone, higher building heights and eased parking requirements for businesses in the downtown area.

The biggest expansions are happening outside downtown, where there is room for more commercial growth, Richardson said.

This friendliness toward business does not just extend to large companies, Jeff Barton said. During his 18 years running Water Fresh Farm in Hopkinton, he has had to tackle many of the issues locally owned businesses face around the country, such as larger stores that can offer lower prices. So, to carve out a unique niche, he opened a specialty market three years ago.

“The town officials have been supportive of us in trying to find ways for us to survive as well as grow,” Barton said.

Dealing with change

The ongoing change in the community can be uncomfortable, though.

“Growth is what is happening and growth is what is panicking people in town. And that would include me,” Foisy said. “Growth is going to happen and we have to manage it and balance it.”

The town is acutely aware of these concerns, he said, and actively taking steps to maintain the connection among the population with ongoing public activities and projects such as a new downtown library and the Hopkinton Center for the Arts, which helps bring members of the community together through classes and events.

But some things, such as attitudes, can’t be addressed with new facilities. Sandy Varnum, who owned Colella’s Supermarket with her three sisters, recently sold the 70-year-old business, long a downtown fixture, to retail developer Crosspoint Associates. While Varnum said the ultimate reason for the sale was a lack of successors within the family, she has also seen a shift in recent years with the growth in Hopkinton’s population.

There has been a changing attitude among residents, Varnum said, with local businesses being valued less because of the lower prices from nearby chain stores.

And the loss of community extends beyond shopping, she said.

“The sense of togetherness and community and friendliness is gone. It’s almost like living in the city. No one knows their neighbors anymore,” she said.

As much as the town may be experiencing growing pains, whether through expanding the business base or feeling a loss of community, Hopkinton’s location and reputation as a good place to live are still helping to pull in new business.

For example, when Jeffrey Peters was looking to move his manufacturing company, Precision Digital Corp., from Holliston to a larger site, he was drawn to a South Street property in Hopkinton because of its proximity to Route 495, as well as the town’s name recognition that comes from being the marathon’s starting point. Peters had so much faith in the area that he purchased a building for $5.35 million after renting in Holliston for 40 years.

“I like the South Street corridor there. It seems like a logically laid out, industrial setting,” he said, explaining that having EMC as a prominent neighbor is a bonus. “It’s important when (potential employees) look and see where you are located that it lends a legitimacy to the business and even saying you are on South Street in Hopkinton is a recognized location.”