Board Mulls Re-Zoning for Economic Development

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
June 28th 2023

RICHMOND – The agenda for Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting focused on economic development possibilities, with board Vice Chair Dan Madnick leading the discussion in the absence of Chair Philip Damicis.

Members explored the feasibility of re-zoning some residential properties to encourage commercial development in the town; a medical use overlay zone for properties on Routes 138 and 3, re-zoning some parcels on Route 3 to support commercial development, and re-zoning properties on Route 2 and Heaton Orchard Road.

“This has been a discussion that planning boards had in the past and it looks like the Town Council’s been talking about it, so I just wanted to hear everyone’s thoughts and feelings on this particular idea,” Madnick said. “How do we try to facilitate, as a Planning Board, getting medical use, an urgent care or walk-in clinic. …  One of the things that people really want is urgent care. … The goal of this is to hopefully work with the Town Council to try to determine how to facilitate bringing an urgent care center in, and where it should go, and how do we do that.”

As they looked at a map on a large television screen, it became apparent that there is not much property available to re-zone.

Madnick said Town Planner Shaun Lacey had suggested creating a medical use overlay zone.

(Lacey, who last week announced his resignation, did not attend the meeting.)

Member Andrea Baranyk asked where medical facilities would currently be permitted, and Town Solicitor Karen Ellsworth explained that they are permitted in every zone, except residential.

Madnick said he wanted to assess several areas of town to determine whether any of them would be suitable for re-zoning.

“One of the things that the Planning Board has been looking at for years, and something that came up in the comprehensive community plan revision, was the fact that we have very limited ability to develop the town of Richmond,” he said. “There’s roughly 25,000 acres in Richmond, 40 square miles, and of that, only about half of that is developable. So, the question’s been asked, are we limiting the potential development opportunities in Richmond.”

Madnick explained that the board was considering areas that could be re-zoned, such as the Aqua Science and Fasano properties on Route 3 that were re-zoned from residential to light industrial.

“Both of these things had to do with supporting small businesses in town,” he said.

After discussing which areas might be suitable for re-zoning, members agreed to ask the Economic Development Commission to approach property owners in one residential zone to determine whether they would support a re-zoning.

“We made a motion to request to Karen to draft a memo to the EDC and talk to property owners on Route 3 if they would be open to a potential re-zone of their properties,” Madnick said.

“There’s definitely a balance that needs to be struck with where we have commercially-zoned properties that allow for that type of development. I feel that Route 3 could support that, even though there are residential properties there now.”

While Route 2 and Heaton Orchard Road were also discussed, there are concerns that commercial development would have adverse impacts on the aquifer or farmland.

“What you run into is, we have the aquifer protection overlay district, then we have the agricultural overlay district and we start running into, when you look at different areas of the town, where we don’t want to develop because hey, these are prime agricultural soils, or this is going to have a huge impact on the aquifer,” Madnick said.

One area of town that might considered for re-zoning, Madnick said, is Alton.

“At a future meeting, we’re going to put an agenda item on to talk about re-zoning parts of Alton, which is in our future land use map and our zoning map as a potential growth area.”