Marlborough's Controversial Zoning Ordinance Gets Second Look

MARLBOROUGH, MA — A proposed zoning ordinance focused on home offices and contractor yards, which drew a large to last week's City Council meeting, is getting a second look. The council voted on Monday to send the proposed ordinance back to the Urban Affairs Committee to be refined.

The ordinance was proposed as a means to clean up residential zones and properly zone businesses — specifically those that created an eyesore or issue in residential neighborhoods. The ordinance would focus on the home office zoning to restrict the number of commercial vehicles at a home office to either one commercial vehicle or one commercial trailer, no bigger than 16 feet long. It would also rezone several areas in the city, many that house contractor yards, to allow for the yards to operate legally, with restrictions, as limited industrial zones or commercial automotive zones.

At last week's meeting, local business owners took to the podium in droves to express concern over how the ordinance would affect them. People running businesses from their homes had questions about the limit on the number of vehicles and whether the restriction would take into account commercial vehicles parked in the garage, out of public view. City Councilors on the fence about the ordinance had the same concerns and questions on Tuesday, several citing new information brought up by speakers last week as a reason to revisit the ordinance.

Many of last week's same speakers showed up to Tuesday's meeting, and although there was no public speak portion, a handful of residents sat in the back of the meeting and wore shirts with the word "No" in bold letters.

The issue of contractor yards needing to have parking spaces paved with "impervious materials" and how it would affect the rain and irrigation of the land was brought up again. Contractor yard owners worried not only about the rain but the cost of paving the large space for parking.

Councilor Joseph Delano Jr., chairman of the Urban Affairs Committee who spearheaded the ordinance, made the point to the council that the ordinance does its best to benefit the business and contractor community in the city, allowing those who run contractor yards to be legally zoned and continue doing business.

Under the proposed ordinance, certain contractor yards and businesses running those yards, would be grandfathered into the ordinance — those established before 1969.

"If we end up passing nothing, there will be no contractor's yards and I would imagine by the end of the year those people will be out of business, because the mayor is already sending out letters," Delano said.