Carroll Steps Down from Planning Bd.

He’s been on the Planning Board for ten years, and last Wednesday, May 1, Planning Board member Bob Carroll handed in his resignation to Town Council President Ron Vecchia.

The resignation came on the day after a presentation made at a special Planning Board by Assistant Town Manager David Rodrigues and a consultant from Form and Place, the same firm that did the master plan for the center business district.

The topic during the Tuesday night meeting was “maps” and as the presentation went on frustration rose with residents centering on who is in the center business district and who is not.

Carroll stated in his letter that it was after the April 30 special Planning Board meeting with Rodrigues and consultants from Form and Place that he decided to resign. He felt he was watching the hard work of so many community members just tossed away.

“Most disheartening, the presentation added more confusion and stress to the abutters, business owners, potential developers as well as the Planning Board itself,” he said in his letter, in which he also complained about the building inspector.

Town Council President Ron Vecchia said Carroll “had put in a lot of time and effort and we appreciate everything he has done.”

At this week’s Town Council meeting, Tom Reilly, of 20 Somerset Ave., an abutter who attended the meeting the week before, pointed out the various shapes of property and the business district boundary from the various maps that he had in his possession. He pointed out that when Police Chief Terry Delehanty was acting as Town Manager in January 2018, a review of the center business district boundaries was done.  “Delehanty determined that no homes on Cottage Park Road and Bartlett Road were in the center business district,” said Reilly.

Reilly continued that on April 8, 2019 Building Commissioner Albert Legee said that a proposed new development called 1025 Somerset was adjacent to the residential A district, which contradicts what Delehanty had said.

“Some town officials continue to the ignore the obvious,” Reilly said. “And the boundaries remain in doubt. The real problem is the source of the map in the master plan. But we’ve hired as a consultant the very person who drew that map.”