Madison Rezoning Fails, Could Come Up Again in Wrentham Town Meeting

While the Madison Street rezoning issue failed at the 2013 Wrentham Town Meeting, the issue could come up again in two years.

The developer, Madison Real Estate, could bring the rezoning issue up again in two years if the Wrentham Planning Board recommends the zoning change.

The rezoning failed on Monday because of a lack of a two-thirds majority. While there was a majority in favor of the rezoning, 247 for and 178 against, it was about 58 percent of the voting public, just under the two-thirds majority needed for approval.

Many residents, including Christa Anderson of the Wrentham Economic Development Committee, were in favor of the proposal. Some of the property is already zoned as commercial one, which could be developed without any town approval, but is only six acres as apposed to the 43.7 acres of residential zoning.

The main argument for the development, if one specific aspect could be addressed, was the fact that the residential portion of the property would be developed if the rezoning didn’t go through, and wouldn’t generate the kind of tax base to fund the schools necessary for an increase in students (if families move in).

“It could be homes, developments, condos or 40b [affordable housing],” Anderson said. “There would be no real plan on how to handle so many more residents and children in our town and schools.”

Residents who live on Madison Street voiced their protest to the zoning change. They said Madison Street is just not built for the extra traffic and new commercial and retail centers could endanger lives.

Resident Amy O’Brien said after looking at traffic impacts on the Lowes on Route 1 and the estimation of the commercial development across the street, it could add a significant amount of traffic.

“The Market Basket Development [across the street on Route 1 in Plainville] would be 10,300 cars per day,” she said. “I took the average of Lowes and Market Basket and accounted for that. Even 25 percent of that average would have 664 cars every hour on average. That number would double or triple during peak shopping hours.”

Wrentham Police Lt. William McGrath said he had done a traffic study and based his estimations on the traffic impact on Taunton Street from the Target/Stop and Shop development.

“We don’t anticipate an impact on Madison Street from the entrance up to Route 140,” he said. “We base that on what we’ve seen for the 10 years the Plainville Commons has been around from the other side of the [Route 495] cloverleaf. We talked with teachers and staff at the Delaney and Roderick schools and they said there’s been no noticeable increase in traffic. We also asked people who have lived there for 15 to 20 years. They’ve noticed nothing alarming.”

McGrath conceded there could at some times be increases in traffic.

“There would be Black Friday traffic, but I don’t know that it would increase dramatically,” he said. “Target at Plainville doesn’t compare to the kind of traffic you see at the outlets. The lot doesn’t fill to the same degree, but any store open on Black Friday is going to attract some degree of traffic.”

O’Brien countered by saying Taunton Street and Madison are not comparable.

“This is not Taunton Street,” she said. “If this development were to go through, the street would become a hazard. Are we going to wait until someone is killed before we do something about it?”

O’Brien went on to say the town could lose out more on the residential tax base at the existing houses on Madison and its sidestreets. She said at least 20 of the residents there are “empty nesters” who have no children in the school system. She added some of them moved to Wrentham for the specific reason of retiring.

“Many have said they would leave if this passes,” she said. “Twenty empty nesters move out and 20 families move in, that’s $500,000 per year put on the town.”

What do you think? Should the town have rezoned the are or did the voters do the right thing?