Citizens petitions see turmoil, hospital plan pitched

The Norwood Board of Selectmen met on Tuesday in the Rob Thornton Room of the Town Hall and voted to approve and support most of the articles for the upcoming Spring Special and Annual Town Meetings.

Most of the usual articles were there, with a few exceptions. The biggest ticket item was the $7.4 million free cash request to plug the budget (Norwood has had an operational deficit for a few years now and has been grappling with the prospect of an operational override) and the $1.8 million for the Police and Fire override (new positions and equipment).

These have been discussed at length and were not unexpected. The $560,000 Community Preservation Act (CPA) request slate – also approved without much discussion other than each item’s explanation – was also approved. The only contention there was a 4-1 vote on the Shattuck wall feasibility study, which Selectman Michael Saad opposed. Saad did not oppose the $130,000 restoration of the Town Hall howitzer cannon, which he had said he didn’t agree with in the past.

The more unique issues were that of eight citizens petitions in the Annual Town Meeting focused around mainly zoning issues and related. Town Manager Tony Mazzucco said all but two were deemed by Town Counsel David DeLucca to be unactionable. He said Town Meeting can “vote on whatever it wants” but if it conflicts with state law, it’s not enforceable or legally binding.

The articles that could be actionable, Mazzucco said, needed to be studied. He and Selectman Amanda Grow both expressed caution at the prospect of unintended consequences, and both cited a citizens petition from two years ago around the Enterprise at 602 Boston Providence Hwy. that had been intended to stop expansion of the business and the subsequent destruction of screening forest for the nearby neighbors and, because of a loophole, ended up allowing the plan to move forward under the new zoning.

So Mazzucco said he wants the changes to be modeled so that Town Meeting has a clear idea of what those changes would entail.

The two possibly actionable articles were Article 16 and Article 18. Article 16 was about implementing a 20 percent residential tax exemption. Mazzucco said this could be done and may help to take some tax burden off Norwood homeowners; however, it would not increase revenue, just shift the burden around. He said municipalities in Massachusetts cannot put new taxes on properties or actions, they can only increase revenue by new growth, Prop 2.5 (2.5 percent increase in property taxes under state law), or through overrides (voters vote to raise their own taxes).

So he said it would be critical to see how this exemption would shift the tax burden onto higher value and rental properties, which in turn could increase rents across the board.

Article 18 would change the definitions of parking spaces, specifically around tandem spaces and stacker spaces. Mazzucco said again this would have broad implications for the entire Zoning Bylaw, which is hundreds of pages, and each consequence should be looked at.

Town Moderator Gerri Slater said despite many of these petitions not being actionable and were not recommended by the Board, the petitioners would have the opportunity to present their cases at Town Meeting.

Another somewhat unique item comes as Article 4 of the Special Town Meeting: a request for $300,000 to start the ball rolling on the Town taking Norwood Hospital by eminent domain (and other Norwood Hospital Task Force-related expenses).

Mazzucco said this is just preliminary work and stressed he hopes a private sale does take place, or the state takes over the property through legislation filed by State Rep. John Rogers and State Sen. Michael Rush, but he said if the Town ends up having to do it, having this paperwork ready will really make things move much faster than otherwise.

“This would not engage the taking, this is to do that preparatory work,” he said. “By funding this work now we will avoid significant delays and ensure we’re ready to act decisively if a resolution is not reached on the property by the fall. Our priority remains a negotiated sale for a willing buyer or a qualified operator. The current owner, Medical Properties Trust, has not yet agreed to any viable terms with healthcare operators, and we’re aware a number of them have offered significant amounts of money for the property, but it does not seem to transact.”

Mazzucco said they would continue to work with potential operators and state legislators to get some kind of deal done.

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Lastly, Norwood Community Media (NCM) Director Jack Tollman and NCM Board President (and Town Moderator) Gerri Slater came by to celebrate recent awards and warn residents of upcoming financial issues.

Tollman and Slater said NCM recent won nine awards in December at the Alliance for Community Media Awards Ceremony, including first place in overall excellence.

“This recognizes the quality of all our programing and to be named number one in New England is quite an accomplishment,” he said, adding this is the sixth time NCM has won in 10 years.

But there are rocky roads ahead, the pair warned. Currently, Slater said NCM is funded by cable providers and their subscribers: Norwood Light and Broadband, Xfinity Comcast and Verizon. But Norwood Light is dropping cable next year, which will result in NCM losing one third of its funding.

Each cable subscription legally requires a contribution to NCM, which is an independent nonprofit media company (not owned by the Town or Norwood Light).

Tollman said there will be meetings with residents and the School Committee on what this means, and what residents can do to support NCM in the future: mainly, switch to Xfinity or Verizon, as they will, at least for the foreseeable future, continue their cable services.