PELHAM — Attendees at the Pelham Town Meeting decided on Saturday to create a new West Pelham town center after 30 years of considering such an idea and at least three years planning it.
Voters deliberated for several hours on whether to amend the town’s zoning bylaws to enable the growth and development of a village center in West Pelham, which the Planning Board said would promote limited economic development, emphasize community involvement and keep the rural feel of the town through an open space design.
Abbie Jenks, a member of the Planning Board, said the board has been working on the zoning changes for three years and said there have been at least two public forums where the plans were discussed in great detail, which culminated in 118 pages of extensive specifications in what Jenks said is a “flexible, workable document” that can be amended as the town sees fit going forward.
Jenks said that development could start happening today in Pelham, particularly with new sewer access, and that with the West Pelham town center zoning amendments, the town would get to have a say in what that development will look like. Jenks said the zoning specifications strive to keep Pelham’s rural character and “New England flavor.”
“Think about how we can create a heart for our town,” Jenks said.
Jenks said that the very first Pelham master plan made in 1987 recommended creating a commercial district with an open space design.
She said benefits of changing the zoning bylaws to grow a village center would include relieving an increasing tax burden by fostering limited new economic development, controlling the growth of residential development so that town services can keep up and creating a sense of connection and community with a place to gather.
Dylan Sussman of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, who was hired to assist with the development of zoning bylaws for the new town center, said key pieces of the new rules are the schedule of use regulations, which specify the type of development that can happen, density regulations, the open space design and allowing the Planning Board special permit granting authority.
After a lengthy discussion on the Town Meeting floor that began to delve into the specifications and amendments of the proposed changes, a Pelham resident called to question a vote on the entire package of zoning changes at around 1:15 p.m. Town Meeting began at 9 a.m. at Pelham Elementary.
Town Moderator Daniel Robb called for a hand count as the article required 2/3 majority to pass and the initial vote was too close to call.
The vote came down to 74 for the new town center zoning, with 31 against and the article passed by majority.
Town Meeting also approved the proposed $4.56 million fiscal 2019 budget, which included an amendment to increase the amount of funding for Pelham Elementary from a proposed $1,752,280 to $1,763,280.
School Committee Chairwoman Cara Castenson said the increase would restore cuts the school made last year to address what she called a challenging year budget-wise for the school, citing a decrease in school choice funds. Castenson said the school made around $50,000 worth of cuts, and was only asking for $11,000 to be added to the budget to restore a portion of those cuts.
“We never wanted to be in the position of making those cuts,” Castenson said. “There’s very little wiggle room and $50,000 is hard to come up with.”
Castenson said the school district struggled this year with students opting to attend charter schools.
Sean Mangano, finance director for the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District, said there are 75 students in Pelham Elementary who are residents of Pelham and 51 students who use school choice to attend Pelham Elementary from surrounding communities.
Mangano said that, as of December, five Pelham students had opted out and, as of March, three students from Pelham were attending charter schools.
Three petitions were passed by Town Meeting. The first was a resolution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions using municipal electric aggregation between Pelham, Amherst and Northampton. Also known as community choice energy, pooling with neighboring communities would strive to allow Pelham to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by selecting renewable energy sources and stabilize electric bills while expanding energy services, according to the petition.
Town Meeting passed a ‘Safe Communities’ petition unanimously. The bylaw instructs town employees not to monitor, detain or question anyone to determine whether a person is an undocumented immigrant, and calls on police to “not inquire about the immigration status of any crime victim, witness or suspect, unless such information is directly relevant to the investigation.”
Another petition, which seeks greater transparency in political donations, was also passed.
Other articles dealt with appropriations from a variety of town reserve funds. Among the appropriations passed by Town Meeting were $45,000 from the Community Preservation Fund to construct an accessible ramp at Community Hall, $23,255 from the capital stabilization account to pay Pelham’s share of the Regional School Capital indebtedness, and another $22,000 from capital stabilization to buy and install a 1,500-gallon double wall diesel fuel tank for the highway department.
Pelham Chief of Police Gary Thomann made an announcement at Town Meeting that there is now a “Code Red” alert system to notify residents of emergencies, but said the alert system only includes landlines by default.
Anyone who wishes to receive alerts on their cell phone can register their number on the Pelham Police Department website, Thomann said.
M.J. Tidwell can be reached at mjtidwell@gazettenet.com.