Southborough Takes Time To Regroup | Town has master plan and zoning changes in the works
PHOTO/EILEEN KENNEDY
This new Walgreens under construction in Southborough is one of many projects underway in town.
Southborough has had the luxury lately of staggered development projects and fewer large residential projects during a slowed economy and is using that time to update its master plan and zoning ordinances.
“We think of it as guiding growth, not controlling growth,” said Vera Kolias, Southborough’s town planner. “We’re developing the master plan after talks about how the town wants to see itself in the next 10 to 20 years.”
A New Vision
As the town had these conversations about its future, it has also been overseeing different phases of a variety of commercial and residential projects.
“We need to finish up our master plan and look at our zoning ordinances to prepare for the (economic) upturn that’s sure to come,” Kolias said.
And Southborough is not alone, according to Donna Jacobs, MetroWest Growth Management Committee’s executive director, who works with a lot of different communities on growth and quality-of-life issues.
“I call it a little breathing room. Many of our communities are very planning conscious and know that to effect any change they want to make, they need to do planning in advance. And now is a good time to do that when there aren’t so many project applications,” she said.
Southborough is a relatively small town, but its location along several important arteries has positioned it for growth. Its population in 2006 was 9,551 and the median income of its residents was $44,310, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Part of Southborough’s master plan and zoning will address mixed-use projects, where retail, commercial and residential use can all be in one project. “It’s quite the buzzword these days, but the issue comes up a ton,” Jacobs said.
Such projects could be great for certain, more compact areas that might not allow residential as a use right now, she said.
Even with a bit of a pause to do long-term planning, Southborough has a number of projects in the works.
EMC Corp. of Hopkinton is expanding by building a 2.2 million square feet of space on 445 acres in Westborough and Southborough. But that project is in the beginning stages and has a years-long build-out plan.
Already under construction is a Walgreen’s drug store on Route 9, where it intersects Oak Hill Road. The store should be open this fall.
There are also three office buildings called the Bartolini Office Park before the Southborough Conservation Commission. The three buildings would each total 26,400 square feet and would be located on Route 9 on the other side of the road from the Verizon property at 325 Turnpike Road (Route 9).
And at some point, Kolias expects development at the Verizon building, which is 362,676 square feet on 51.5 acres. It was sold by the communications company to an investment company.
“It’s a distribution facility and it’s in a really great location,” Kolias said. The building is bordered on three sides by natural barriers: woods, wetlands and stream, so the footprint cannot be extended any further.
Another barrier to certain developments is the lack of public sewer systems in Southborough, she said.
If a company wants to build a project, it has to come up with its own wastewater treatment plant.
And at least two large multi-family and apartment projects, with 40B approval from the state, have not gone forward yet.
Jacobs thinks that an upcoming study of the Route 9 corridor her organization is doing in conjunction with the Metropolitan Area Planning Organization will be helpful to all the towns and the development pressures they are under all along the major artery.
“We can work together to really study this, to look at it a little more holistically than just from each town,” Jacobs said. “The development pressures have just ebbed a little, they certainly haven’t gone away.”
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