Vote yes on article 4 at Special Town Meeting on Dec 2

I woke up this morning to find a blog post on here urging people to pass over the article 4 zoning bylaw amendment.

Since the author is on the board of Historic Weston, a proponent of a specific reuse for the JST/OL I understand they would benefit from continuing to constrain the choices available for residents to consider. Defeating the article 4 zoning bylaw amendment would preclude a range of mixed use options that are part of several other ideas being put forward by other groups.  

For instance, the Elderly Housing Committee and another group have both discussed the possibility of using the Old Library for affordable housing.  Those ideas would not be possible without the bylaw amendment.  As has been noted many times before, the bylaw also applies to other town-owned buildings and will provide greater flexibility to keep the Fiske Law Office as marketable rental office space, and could apply to reuse of other town-owned buildings in the future (note that the bylaw is necessary for this flexibility whether the town retains ownership of these buildings or not).  

I have met with the founder of Historic Weston and heard about their idea for reuse of these properties.  It is a worthy and potentially viable idea.  But the Town is best served by discussing that idea on its merits, in the context of considering other options and not because we defeat a bylaw amendment in order to constrain our own choices to leave it the only game in town.  

That is why I am puzzled by the author's conclusion, encouraging the Selectmen to put these properties to their highest and best use (which I interpret to mean best meet town objectives, not simply greatest financial value).  If that is what you genuinely believe, that is all the more reason to vote yes on article 4, to provide Weston with the flexibility it needs to select that highest and best use.

The members of your Board of Selectmen have stated many times, and again at last night's meeting, that we are taking the time to do this right.  Choosing to continue to constrain our options does not serve that interest.  Please vote yes on article 4.