Selectmen Backtrack: No T.C.O.D. For Prescott School

Selectmen want to remove Prescott School from inclusion in the expansion of the Town Center Overlay District (TCOD) that is being proposed by the Planning Board in an article on the warrant for Town Meeting to change zoning districts.

Earlier the Board had asked for the town-owned property to be included in the TCOD. However, Selectmen Chairman Josh Degen said that in thinking about this request, he felt that residents had already spoken clearly in a wide-spread questionnaire done by Prescott School Reuse Committee that they did not want housing as part of the historic Main Street site, and if the property fell within the TCOD, housing would become a possible use for the structure.

"If it moved to the TOCD and it didn't work, there is nothing stopping the owner from putting in housing," Degen said. Colleague Anna Eliot said she concurred with his position and agreed that it should not be part of the TCOD.

They asked the Planning Board to remove it from the TCOD and to add Prescott School to the Business District zone instead so that they can move forward with the article on the warrant for the sale of the property. The Planning Board will have to set up a public hearing quickly in order to do this.

Planning Board member John Giger suggested that the Board leave the school as it is with a 'P' zoning designation for 'public' and make the change to one of the new business districts at Spring Town Meeting. Land Use Director Michelle Collette advised that the building could be put in the TCOD as any changes will require a special permit from the Planning Board, suggesting that in the spring, the property could then be put it into a business designation.