Moratorium passed on retail building

WARREN – A special town meeting vote Tuesday bars the construction or expansion of retail buildings 35,000 square feet or larger while the town’s ordinances are reviewed.

A 43-19 vote enacted a six-month moratorium on such projects, which is retroactive to April 1.

The vote for a moratorium is simply a temporary measure saying, “just wait a minute – timeout,” resident Steve Burke said.

Burke, who is a spokesman for Our Town Warren, a group advocating for controls to keep so-called big-box developers at bay, said the moratorium will give the town time to fashion a size cap that is appropriate for Warren.

The 35,000-square-foot limit was “plucked out of the air,” he said, noting that a committee might propose a different limit.

Selectmen are expected to appoint a committee to pore over various ordinances and develop recommendations for a future vote, perhaps including a permanent size cap. The moratorium expires Sept. 27, but may be extended by selectmen if they feel the committee is making progress.

If so, recommendations could be voted on at the March 2007 town meeting.

Burke has worked with other coastal towns that have enacted moratoriums or size caps, he said, including Thomaston, which voted on a cap “so huge it would only keep out a Super Wal-Mart,” he said.

Burke asserts that big-box retailers like Wal-Mart harm communities by eroding the tax base, burdening the infrastructure, diminishing quality of life and have an environmental impact.

Several residents did not like the way the warrant article was written.

“There is a strong likelihood that all areas of town will continue to be subjected to this development pressure due to the nonexistence of any size regulations or restriction,” part of the moratorium states.

Resident Gordon Jameson asked, “Where is there development pressure?”

“I have some land I’d like to sell,” he said.

Town officials indicated no large retailers had been scouting around town.

A short time later, Eleanor Hansen, who owns a large tract of land on Route 1, said a Realtor has approached her about buying 25 acres for retail development. She declined the offer, she said.

Mark Waltz questioned whether the moratorium applies to other types of businesses such as manufacturing.

The cap applies to retail space only, Burke said, explaining that should Lockheed-Martin want to come into town with hundreds of jobs, it would be exempt from the moratorium.

One “could argue the ordinance is discriminatory,” Waltz said.

Resident Nancy Watson also took issue with the wording of the moratorium.

“It’s filled with hyperbole,” she said. “We are not faced with an emergency. I cannot support this the way it is presented.”

Shlomit Auciello agreed with Watson that the wording is “overblown,” but said, “we shouldn’t get stuck on that.”

The moratorium will give a committee a chance to come up with a cap proposal or even a recommendation of no cap, she said.

As far as facing an emergency, Auciello said when large retail development “happens and you know it’s happening, it’s too late” to stop it.