Entertainment, Pot Zoning Up For Vote At Mansfield Town Meeting

MANSFIELD, MA — Annual town meeting is scheduled for Tuesday and asks residents to pay for a $1.4 million increase to the school budget and allow zoning changes that would permit the construction of large entertainment centers in commercial zoning and marijuana research and testing in the industrial park. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at Mansfield High School, where residents will vote on 38 warrant articles.

Article 35 ask voters to approve amending Mansfield's zoning bylaws to allowing the construction of family entertainments in various commercial areas. If approved Mansfield could see skating rinks, theaters, cinemas, bowling alleys, arcades, indoor golf or other sports simulations, and art studios come to to town, as long as the facilities are 65,000 square feet or less.

Marijuana research and testing companies could be zoned in the industrial park if Article 38 passes. The zoning wouldn't be by right, but would require a special permit approved by the Planning Board.

Article 1, the town budget, includes an increase to the school budget of about 3 percent,as well as money to hire emergency dispatchers to staff the new regional dispatch center in Foxborough. Mansfield, Easton, and Norton, and Foxborough are joining together to form the Southeastern Massachusetts Regional Emergency Communication Center. Foxborough and Mansfield are starting the regionalization with other towns joining later.

The towns will temporarily use the Foxborough Public Safety Building to start the program, since Mansfield's new public safety building does not include a dispatch center. It was built with regionalization in mind.

A full list of the town articles can be found below: