What is a franchise? What is a formula store? Is either appropriate for West Brattleboro, and how should we limit them? The Planning Commission will begin to grapple with these questions at their meeting on Monday, July 9th at 6: 45 pm in the Hanna Cosman Room of the Municipal Center.
The draft Master Plan for West Brattleboro calls for discouraging national and regional franchises in general, and formula stores in particular, in the area between Edward Heights and Sunset Lake Road. This recommendation was made after a series of well attended public meetings held over the last year and a half, at which over 200 participants made clear a preference for a vibrant, attractive, pedestrian-friendly village with a mix of housing and commercial uses.
The Planning Commission and Selectboard have been working on preparing interim zoning ordinances to implement the Master Plan, and until now, these efforts have largely focused on protecting the flood plain of the Whetstone Brook. Recently, however, the Planning Commission began to concentrate on the Master Plan’s initial suggestion that formula stores – retail establishments with a standardized merchandise, façade, signage, and so on – be limited to the fullest extent allowed by law. “As soon as we began talking about it, we realized there was a lot to explore further before we could begin crafting ordinance language,” says Sarah Brennan, an assistant planner with the Town.
Many communities throughout the country have tried to limit the spread, or at least the visual impact, of cookie- cutter businesses through stringent design guidelines. That’s one option the Planning Commission will begin to take up at Monday night’s meeting. But other communities have taken it a step farther, by focusing on the ownership structure of the company in question. “We need to come up with our own definition of formula store, and our own definition of ‘locally owned’ – we want to implement standards that the community can agree on and is comfortable with”, says Planning Commission member Gary Goodemote. Monday night’s meeting is the first step in that process.
The meeting will be held at 6:45 pm in the Hanna Cosman Room on the second floor of the Municipal Center, 230 Main Street, and will be filmed for BCTV. For more information, contact the Planning Department at 254.4541.
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