Comprehensive Route 1 Zoning Overhaul Proposed Following Impact Study-This Day In Norwood History-June 11, 1971

Planning Board Schedules Public Hearings for Proposed Clusters and Commercial Restrictions

The Norwood Planning Board has finalized plans to host an extensive public hearing on July 1 to evaluate a series of major zoning changes along the Route 1 commercial corridor.

The proposed updates are directly based on a progressive, recently completed $3,000 impact study conducted by Metcalf & Eddy, a Boston-based consulting firm. The study specifically analyzed the regional infrastructural and traffic impact of the Schaefer Stadium construction project along Route 1.

Planners predict that the complexity of the sweeping zoning package will require more than one public hearing session to fully address all of the scheduled regulatory shifts. To safeguard municipal control, planners emphasized that the timely introduction of these changes is of immediate importance to prevent developers from filing conflicting building plans under the town’s current, less restrictive bylaws.

The center of the proposed overhaul is the creation of an entirely new zoning district. This district would apply exclusively to an area on Route 1 extending directly from the stadium site down to the Walpole town line. Under this updated concept, progressive planned unit development and cluster zoning concepts would be heavily prioritized.

Key provisions of the Metcalf & Eddy report and the Planning Board proposal include:

• Mixed-Use Development: Allowing residential structures and commercial business buildings to be integrated on large tracts of land.
• Open Space Restrictions: Requiring extensive environmental buffer zones, with a strict mandate that at least 40% of the total land area must be left completely open for recreational and unpaved space.
• Lot Dimensions: Establishing a formal increase in the town’s minimum lot sizes and general spatial dimensions.
• Commercial Controls: Introducing a rigid local sign control ordinance and a comprehensive parking lot ordinance. Planners noted that unregulated, unpaved parking lots could create tremendous local traffic hazards. The new rules seek to explicitly prevent temporary and unregulated commercial lots from crossing or traversing Route 1.

Because any formal adoption of these zoning updates requires both an official public hearing and a subsequent majority vote on the Town Meeting floor, Planning Board members raised the possibility of convening a special town meeting in September to ensure final approval before the autumn building season.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger