Rezoning efforts fail at Rochester Town Meeting

ROCHESTER — An effort to rezone a number of properties in a rural part of town along County and Mary’s Pond roads was rejected at a three-hour Town Meeting on Monday, May 18.

Proposed by town officials as a way to increase town tax revenue, opponents argued it would unnecessarily degrade the town’s rural character. 

The areas up for consideration were split into three groups. On Monday, the vote was 117 for rezoning the first group of parcels, 85 against it. The vote was 84 for and 118 against for the second group. A two-thirds favorable vote would have been needed for the measures to pass. 

“This is a rural community, that is why we live here,” Daniel Clark said. “Raise my taxes if you have to, but don’t bring businesses in that you can’t control.”

Patricia Andrade said Rochester’s rural charm brought her back to town, and she doesn’t want to see new businesses in her neighborhood. 

“I moved from Brockton to come back to my hometown because it's so beautiful. It's rural, it's just lovely,” Andrade said. “Now we have this, just taking one section to rezone, where all of us that live here as a nice rural area, to be changed into stores or buildings.”

Michelle Upton said she was surprised so many people opposed the rezoning, as she sees rezoning as a solution to increasingly slim budgets in town.

“All the other articles that we have just voted on tonight, the reason that our town is in so much debt, the reason we’re cutting several teachers — we are probably going to be cutting more — that problem is not going away unless we find another way to make revenue,” Upton said.

Debate has surrounded rezoning eight parcels since February, with town officials arguing the change could bring small businesses to town and raise more tax revenue. Many residents opposed the move, fearing commercial activity could change Rochester's rural character and bring too much development.

711 Mary's Pond Road, and 73 and 35 County Road were bundled together for the first group of properties Town Meeting was asked to rezone. 

Two parcels at 0 Mary’s Pond Road and one at 475 Mary’s Pond Road — parcels where the Decas processing facility once stood — made up the second group. 

The third comprised of two additional 0 Mary’s Pond Road parcels, the site of several bogs.

Planning Board Chair Arnold Johnson, a proponent of rezoning, said property owners “have the right to develop their property,” but rezoning would give town departments more control over what that development looks like. 

Chaos broke out when Johnson moved to indefinitely postpone a vote on the final group of parcels, with many voters confused if this would effectively kill the proposition or allow it to return at a future meeting. 

After Town Meeting approved postponing the vote, a woman who did not identify herself before addressing the crowd began shouting that officials had lied to voters about what postponing the measure meant. She was promptly asked to leave.