It’s time to take action for our future.
As I write this, Fall Town Meeting is about to start. It will consider nine zoning articles. I’m in favor of those that will make it possible to have more businesses in Amherst to help pay the taxes that fund most of the services we expect and want.
Article 10 would establish a Research & Development (R&D) Overlay district on the west side of University Drive, between Northampton Road (Route 9) and Amity Street. The purpose is to encourage economic development in the form of research and testing activities. Article 11 amends wording in the zoning by law to facilitate business in the Overlay district and, at the same time, tighten regulations in other zones in town (Light Industry and Professional Research Park).
Article 12 would allow some light manufacturing, incidental to the other uses (technical research and development office, laboratory, or research facilities), by special permit. This kind of activity is an integral part of much research and development. If we want to attract and keep the kinds of “high tech” businesses we say we want, we have to make it possible for them to function.
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Article 13 would create a new kind of professional office – one with a few visitors by appointment – and allow that kind of office in two zoning districts (with restrictions) where they are not currently allowed. This proposal has met with determined opposition in the past from some who think it will seriously degrade their neighborhood. I don’t understand the opposition, particularly since anyone, by right, can have an “accessory” office in their home and employ up to two people. There are accessory offices all over Amherst, and most of us don’t realize it because they are so unobtrusive. We already all have delivery trucks from UPS etc. in our neighborhoods because so many things are ordered online and delivered that way to homes as well as businesses. The newly proposed type of office, and allowing it in two more zones, will be a modest expansion of what already exists. It will mean that a financial advisor, for example, can expand to a slightly larger office than she or he has now, but continue to walk to work. At least some customers may also be able to walk, rather than drive, or at least have a shorter drive (thus putting less carbon dioxide in the air) than if they had to drive to the center of town or to Hadley.
I understand the Planning Board is working on some changes to their proposed article, and plans to bring the new version to “special within the special” Town Meeting. I hope the Board is able to make their proposal work for both professionals wanting to set up offices and neighborhoods, so we can all have these benefits.
I also support Article 15 (which extends the General Business zone to Spring Street) and Article 16 (which changes the zoning for some properties on South East Street, near the intersection of College Street and Belchertown Road, from residential to business, primarily “village center business”). Both are logical extensions of existing business zones, in places where there are barriers between the properties in question and most other residences.
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I understand that often people do not want significant change to land near them. And that some people think that their own ideas are better than other people’s. We have a structure of government based on public input and involvement. The articles proposed by the Planning Board have gone through that process, so I have more confidence in them than in articles proposed by small groups of individuals acting on their own.
It’s time for Amherst to face our financial realities. No one expects that the kinds of businesses we can attract will put us on easy street, or that the contribution new businesses can make to our budget will be huge. But we can confidently predict that if we continue to make no changes, we have nowhere to go but down. To quote from the Finance Committee’s recommendations for these articles: “The Finance Committee’s 2007 three-year financial plan for Amherst identifies economic development as one of the few revenue-generating components of the plan totally within the Town’s control.” It’s time to stop waiting for Godot (or some other mythical savior) and take responsible action on our own behalf.