Town Hall Plans Pass Special Town Meeting

After years of gridlock and debate, Foxborough officials now have the green light to create the plans and cover the soft costs for a new town hall.

Residents at Monday night’s Special Town Meeting supported the article 162 to 57, allowing the town to hire an architect and project manager to create the blueprints and plans for the new building to be located in the parking lot of the current building on South Street.

The article calls for the town to use over $557,000 in funds, mostly from the Library Capital Fund with some funding coming from free cash.

The vote reflects a contrast to last year’s results which saw the town hall proposal plan unable to obtain the two-thirds majority needed for approval.

Unlike last year’s proposal, the new building would be smaller than earlier proposals at 15,500 sq. ft. The current building is 14,000 sq. ft.

Opponents of the article cited the possibility for renovation and a lack of desire to demolish the current 50-year-old Town Hall.

Retired architect and Town Hall Study Group member Dick Heydecker proposed using only $450,000 for renovation and argued that the town could save between $2.5 to $3 million by renovating the current building.

Building Committee Chairman Bill Yukna responded with the risk of renovation and stripping the building down to its bare bones.

“If we do find a mystery or hit a hiccup we’re going to have to pay for that because then it’s too late and we’re going forward. That is a mystery that we as a group were not comfortable with,” Yukna said.

Special Town Meeting also voted to approve the following articles:

• A vote to allow the Kraft Group to pay for the costs of a new police officer was approved. The funding for the officer was part of the Splitsville agreement from earlier this year.
• Voters by a vote of 160-23 approved $600,000 for a new DPW modular building on Elm Street. The new building will house the entire department, allowing the Water and Sewer to move out of town hall and into the building when it is build.
• The new sign bylaw, which revamps the town’s policy on signs passed 123 to 2 vote. An amendment for electronic billboards will be considered at a future town meeting.
• The zoning changes related to accessory apartments, the downtown overlay district, and building heights all passed unanimously.

Attendance at the Special Town Meeting was 233 voters.