A familiar face is set to join the Saugus Planning Board, bringing its membership up to five members for the first time in more than a year.
Bob Long, a Town Meeting member representing Precinct 4 who served a five-year stint as the board’s chair from 1981 to 1986, was appointed to fill a vacant seat on the Planning Board by the Board of Selectmen earlier this month. Long is also a former selectman and served as Town Meeting moderator for a time.
Long received unanimous approval from the selectmen to join the Planning Board, which also added Richard Thompson as a member in 2023.
When asked why he wanted to rejoin the board after more than three decades away, Long quipped “even my family is wondering why I would do it after all these years.” But, he said he harbored concerns about overdevelopment in town and lax enforcement of zoning bylaws and other regulations.
“I’m the kind of person who says look, you make agreements, you put your laws out there, they should be followed,” Long said in a telephone interview. “Variances (should be) for exceptional cases.”
Long cited the Avalon Saugus development at the old Hilltop Steak House as one where “massive” buildings were being erected that “really dominate” Forest Street, and in his view, the Town’s zoning was not followed to the letter of the law. While the zoning overlay on Route 1 now permits housing, it only does so in mixed-use developments. To Long, a series of apartment buildings fronted by a strip mall does not satisfy the idea of having first-floor commercial spaces below residential units.
“That’s not what the overlay was for,” he said. “We need to come back to what we do have for rules and regulations regarding the environment here.”
Among the Planning Board’s most critical roles in town is reviewing plans for developments and approving or disapproving them. The board also makes recommendations to Town Meeting on articles involving zoning and development, with those recommendations becoming the motion on the floor of Town Meeting.
As evidenced by the Cliftondale Zoning Overlay proposal that failed in May, recommendations from the board tend to carry weight with Town Meeting.
Long, for his part, said he wants to see the Town enhance the existing community through development, balancing the character of Saugus’ neighborhoods with the need to expand.
“It’s not a tear-down philosophy,” he said. “It’s time to make sure that some of these things that go on stop. It’s getting a little extreme here.”
Long’s skeptical attitude toward development mirrors that of many town officials. Selectman Michael Serino was an avid opponent of the proposed Cliftondale overlay and introduced articles at Town Meeting to reduce the height of buildings on Route 1. Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Jeff Cicolini has called for a complete pause on development along the highway.
Long said the residents he speaks to are concerned about overdevelopment.
“If you’re changing the characteristics of a neighborhood from what it was created for… that really puts pressure on the neighborhood itself,” he said. “It’s really a career here just trying to make this a livable situation.”
When he was first appointed to the Planning Board all those years ago, Long said it was a badge of honor for residents to step up and volunteer their time for their community. Now, he said, people shy away from those posts.
“It’s tough to get younger people to volunteer and to become knowledgeable about what the requirements are for their positions,” he said.
