SAUGUS — Saugus Town Meeting members, wary of what one member called “uncontrolled growth,” voted Monday night to lower maximum building heights from 90 feet to 50 feet for in-town dwellings and 60 feet for businesses along Route 1.
Ten articles — all of them presented with the blessing of the Planning Board — dealt with lowering the issue of buildings that most residents feared were growing uncontrollably.
“I support this article,” said member Robert Palleschi. “There’s nothing worse for a town than uncontrolled growth.”
All 10 articles passed overwhelmingly, though none of them unanimously. A small cadre of members, led by Peter Rosetti Jr., Joseph Vecchione and Chris Riley, opposed the articles, feeling that Route 1 is changing so much (“away from brick-and-mortar and more toward mixed-use.” Riley said) that it was counterintuitive to put limits on the height of buildings.
“I don’t want to see skyscrapers up and down Route 1 either,” Riley said, adding, however, that he didn’t think the town should place limits on construction.
There are 38 articles left on the warrant. Town Meeting will resume next Monday at Town Hall at 7:30 p.m.
Selectman Michael Serino, who spoke on behalf of the zoning changes, said that many of the existing limitations have been around since the 1960s, and that these changes would bring the town in line with other communities of similar size and demographics.
The first of these articles taken upset the town for the bulk of the meeting. It asked to decrease existing zoning laws for multi-family dwellings from 90 to 50 feet high. Speaking in favor of this — and the other — proposals, Selectwoman Debra Panetta said, “I think 90 feet is excessive.”
Town Meeting also voted to shrink multi-density district, high-rise, and industrial district buildings in town (as opposed to the highway) to 50 feet as well.
The same went for the waterfront mixed use overlay district.
The final three zoning articles dealt with Route 1, where the members voted to decrease the height, both in stories and feet, to 60 instead of 50 feet.
“These are significant zoning changes for Saugus,” said Panetta, who worked with Serino on the articles and to collect signatures for them.
Elsewhere, the members voted to appropriate money for various expenses such as water and sewer fees and unpaid bills.
