With Election Day six days away, the board went on record against the statewide lot-size question. The same night it backed a rezoning off Wareham Street, heard a pitch to require solar on new commercial buildings, and flagged a staff memo sent out under its name.

MIDDLEBOROUGH — The Planning Board voted Oct. 20 that it does not endorse Question 7, the statewide ballot initiative that would let a single-family home be built on any residential lot of at least 5,000 square feet with 50 feet of frontage, as long as the lot has public water and sewer. Four members voted in favor of the motion and one (Kefalis) abstained. Voters decide the question Tuesday, Nov. 3.

The board met at 6:30 p.m. in the Select Board meeting room at Town Hall. The posted agenda is on the town’s website, and the full meeting is on MCCAM’s on-demand channel. Minutes of the meeting have not been posted yet; they would normally come up for approval at the board’s next meeting, Nov. 17. The account below comes from the recording and the town’s posted documents.

At the same meeting, the board recommended a rezoning near Wareham Street to the Select Board by a 3-1-1- vote nay was Kefalis, abstain was Martenson; endorsed two lot-division plans, heard residents ask for a bylaw requiring solar on large new buildings, and raised concerns about a memo the town planner sent the Zoning Board of Appeals on Planning Board letterhead.

Question 7: “one size fits all”

The discussion was on the agenda at the chairman’s request. According to the board’s Oct. 6 minutes, Vice Chairperson Nancy Kefalis relayed a message from Chairman Allin Frawley asking whether members wanted to take up Question 7, and the board agreed to do it Oct. 20.

Kefalis read the attorney general’s summary into the record. A yes vote would allow single-family homes on lots of 5,000 square feet or more in residential areas, with at least 50 feet of frontage and access to public water and sewer. Cities and towns could still reasonably regulate height, distance from neighboring buildings, open space, parking and short-term rentals, and the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities could issue guidance. A no vote changes nothing.

Members worried most about the center of town, where water and sewer already run. Board member Tracie Craig-McGee said accessory dwelling units would still be allowed on the smaller lots. She lives near the center and said a lot of a little over half an acre could be split into four or five house lots, and said that “would destroy my neighborhood.” Members also raised sewer and water capacity and the effect on schools, and several said they doubted the measure would produce affordable housing.

“I don’t like the one size fits all approach,” Frawley said, adding that the proposal had not been vetted by local planning boards. A motion that the board “not endorse” the question followed and passed with one abstention.

The vote is the board’s opinion only. It has no effect on the ballot, and the decision belongs to voters on Nov. 3.

A rezoning off Wareham Street moves toward Town Meeting

The board voted 3-1, with one abstention, to recommend favorable action to the Select Board on a zoning map change that would move part of Assessors’ Map 65, Lot 5659, and Map 66, Lots 3342, 3448 and 5727, from Residential A to General Use. There was little discussion. Members said they had covered it at the prior meeting, and the board’s administrative assistant, Robin Perry, said the vote needed was a recommendation of favorable action to the Select Board, to get the article on a warrant.

The Oct. 6 minutes show attorney Michael O’Shaughnessy appearing with Marcus Baptiste and Timothy Hashem, arguing that the land around the lots is already zoned General Use. With only four members present that night, O’Shaughnessy asked that the hearing be continued to Oct. 20 “when a full Board would be present.” The board agreed. O’Shaughnessy also represents the developers of the proposed East Grove Street surf park, as The G.O.A.T. News has reported.

The same evening, the board unanimously endorsed an approval-not-required plan for 258 Wareham Street, filed by Baptiste, covering Map 65, Lots 4027 and 5659, the same Lot 5659 named in the rezoning. The surveyor told the board the plan creates three lots along the street with adequate area and frontage. Asked whether the land was in a Chapter 61 tax program, the answer was no.

Hashem appeared again on a second plan, for Lot 5 at 177 Summer Street, filed by LEX Development, Inc., where he said he is president. The surveyor said the Conservation Commission has since approved the wetland line and a wetland crossing, so a parcel once labeled unbuildable could now be a house lot. Board member Tracie Craig-McGee said the lot appeared to be 60 to 70 percent wetlands. “I’m really concerned,” she said, “that these people are going to be living in a swamp.” Hashem said the water table runs about three to four feet and the perc tests and septic design are approved. The board endorsed the plan 4-1.

Should new commercial buildings have to carry solar?

Kimberly French, board president of Sustainable Middleboro, and the group’s Ellen Melchior asked the board to start work on a bylaw modeled on one in Watertown. They said Watertown requires solar on new commercial development larger than 10,000 square feet or with 10 or more residential units, with panels covering at least half the roof or any parking canopy, and exceptions for sites without good sun.

French said the state stretch code, which Middleborough has adopted, already requires new buildings to be 40 percent solar-ready. Melchior said that when developers offer solar only “if it’s economically feasible,” it rarely happens, and pointed to large new projects such as a warehouse proposed in South Middleborough. They said Middleborough Gas & Electric told them it had no objection to more local solar.

Board member Anders Martenson IV said he was not against the idea but wanted to see real costs over time, including efficiency, maintenance, insurance and roof repairs. Craig-McGee called it “a good idea in theory” but said she was not sure about it in reality, or that she would be comfortable making it a requirement, though she supported asking developers to add solar. She also raised keeping mature trees on site and whether Middleborough Gas & Electric would buy the excess power. The board’s advice was to bring back the numbers and a draft bylaw through the town planner, Leeann Bradley. Frawley said a requirement like this belongs before Town Meeting. “I don’t think the planning board should be the only five people in town who decide this,” he said.

A staff memo on the board’s letterhead

Under correspondence, Craig-McGee raised a memo the town planner sent the Zoning Board of Appeals about a proposal for 40 to 41 studio apartments at 10, 16 and 22 School Street, which needs a special permit and a variance. She said the memo was well written. The concern was its last paragraph, which urged the zoning board to negotiate for 25 percent of the units to be affordable and recommended granting the variances if the applicant agreed.

The memo went out on Planning Board stationery rather than Planning Department letterhead, she said, which could lead readers to believe the board itself had taken that position. It had not voted on it. Because Bradley was out, the board agreed to take the matter up when she returns.

The rest of the agenda, and where each case left off

Grace Estates. The subdivision at Map 71, Lot 2938, filed by Robert Grace, trustee, was not heard. The applicant sent an extension, and the board moved its decision deadline from Nov. 10 to Dec. 1.

Moore Farm Estates. The board opened the hearing on a four-lot definitive subdivision at 120 Plympton Street, owned by Robert Moore, Robert Moore Jr. and Christopher Moore, with plans dated July 10 by Zenith Consulting Engineering of Lakeville, then continued it without discussion to Nov. 17. The agenda lists a Dec. 9 deadline.

Chapter 61A notice. The board reviewed Carver-Middleboro Cranberry Co.’s right-of-first-refusal notice tied to a lease for a solar field near Fuller’s Pond. Members said they could not tell from the sketch exactly which land was involved, and the board took no vote, leaving the decision on whether the town should buy to the Select Board. The same company filed a Chapter 61A notice for Fuller Street land in Carver, as The G.O.A.T. News reported last week.

2027 schedule. The board adopted next year’s meeting calendar unanimously.

The board itself

The Planning Board’s members are Chairman Allin Frawley, Vice Chairperson Nancy Kefalis, Tracie Craig-McGee, William Garceau and Anders Martenson IV, with David Dias as associate member, according to the Oct. 6 minutes. Kefalis was also recommended Oct. 22 for a regular seat on the Zoning Board of Appeals, as The G.O.A.T. News reported. The board’s agendas and minutes are posted in the town’s Agenda Center.

Barrella serves on the Middleborough Finance Committee and the Town Manager Search Committee. The Finance Committee makes recommendations on Town Meeting warrant articles, which would include the Wareham Street-area rezoning if it reaches a warrant. Neither body has a role in the Planning Board’s votes.