Attorney General Edward W. Brooke has given his approval to the zoning changes voted by the Norwood Special Town Meeting on September 23rd which cleared the way for the Polaroid Corporation to build a multi-million-dollar plant complex on the former Forbes Estate here.
Approval of the Attorney General, dated September 30, was received at the Municipal Building by Town Clerk and Accountant Bartley W Connolly. The zoning changes as adopted will become effective on October 14 after being advertised.
However, the rezoning of the Forbes Estate, from Single Residence to Limited Manufacturing has yet to be tested, in the courts, as promised by Stanley H. Rudman, Boston attorney representing some 60 of the abutters and property owners in the vicinity of the Forbes Estate.
Atty. Rudsten said that he will file “probably within the next week” a Bill in equity in Superior Court at Dedham seeking to have the zoning change declared illegal and invalid. The suit, he said would be based essentially on the contention that the rezoning of the Forbes Estate is spot zoning and therefore illegal.
The Boston attorney said that he has a meeting scheduled with the Norwood group tonight to discuss the case further.
Meanwhile, Polaroid sent a letter last Thursday to 95 residents living close to the Forbes Estate, inviting them to work closely with the company in their planning.
The letter, signed by David W. Skinner, vice president and general manager of Polaroid, invited the neighbors to attend a meeting at the Waltham plant tomorrow night to discuss the preliminary plans for Norwood and “talk over ways of working together …”
Similar periodic meetings were suggested.
In his letter to each resident, Mr. Skinner, said in part:
“We should like to ask you and other residents who live close to the Forbes estate to help us in our planning so that we can become ,in fact the good neighbors that we hope to be.
“Our engineers and architects will shortly be dealing with many points oh which we should have your advice if we are to get off on the right foot. We will need quite promptly, for example, your Ideas on the nature of ‘the planting and other features of design for the buffer zone. Later, as our plans progress, there will be a continuing need to put our heads together.
“How should we go about this? One possibility, suggested immediately after the Town Meeting, Thursday night, was to have representatives of your group meet periodically with those in our organization who are directing the project.
“As we start, we invite all of you to visit us in Waltham, on Thursday, October 7. We plan a tour of the grounds beginning at 6 p.m. a simple buffet in our dining room at 6:30; followed by a visit to our film assembly operations. Immediately thereafter, we can gather to discuss the preliminary plans as they now stand for the Norwood property, and talk over ways of working together on future plans.
“We certainly hope you can join us.”
(All articles originally published in the Norwood Messenger)