Proposed Zoning Aims To Tidy Neighborhoods; Businesses Skeptical

MARLBOROUGH, MA — Marlborough's City Council and Planning Board are mulling over a zoning ordinance proposed by Mayor Arthur Vigeant that focuses on home offices and contractor yards. The ordinance has been in the works for about four months, but at last week's City Council meeting, business-owners and contractors came out in droves to express their dissent.

The proposed 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. The proposed ordinance 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.

Marlborough's current zoning only allows for one commercial vehicle on a residentially zoned property. The city said at a public hearing, that it has had ongoing issues with some businesses run out of residential homes, including multiple commercial vehicles parking in the neighborhood and some contractors bringing and disposing of work materials at their homes.

"We've had lots of input from residents, going on about four months," Vigeant said. He added that some businesses have not been operating in the proper zone and that the proposed ordinance is built to protect neighborhoods.

Vigeant acknowledged this could pose an issue for businesses. "It's not anyone's intent to close someone's business down," he said, "That's why we're working to put an ordinance in place to allow many of the things going on today, that are not allowed in our current ordinance." He said that if the ordinance is not passed, the city will start enforcing its current laws.

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

Contractors and businesses flooded the public speak portion of the meeting with questions about their individual properties and the cost for contractor yards to come into compliance with the new ordinance.

Charles Trombetta, co-owner of Trombetta farms, brought up the point that the ordinance would require contractor yards to have parking spaces paved with "impervious materials" such as concrete or asphalt. "I have two acres of parking for my contractors, I put down load after load of crushed stone ... if I'm forced to pave on top of that, to pave the two acres will be impossible," Trombetta said. He added that the requirement would stop other contractor yard businesses from coming to Marlborough and force his business to close. "You think people are going to come in and take advantage of the opportunities — they're not going to be able to afford to," he said.

Several residents brought forth the point that not all home offices who have commercial vehicles are causing a disturbance or an eyesore. Councilor-at-Large Kathleen Robey echoed the sentiment, "You don't keep the whole classroom in because one person did something bad," Robey said. She added that the drafted ordinance on April 9 was better suited for the needs of the community, offering an allowance of two commercial vehicles including a trailer in a residentially zoned property. Robey said the tone changed after a slideshow of disorderly properties entered the conversation.