The Manchester Enterprise
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Council ponders name change for zoning district
'Highway commercial' would become 'regional commercial
By Edward Freundl, Heritage Newspapers
PUBLISHED: February 8, 2007
The Manchester Village Council on Monday studied the implications of changing one of its commercial zoning designations to steer development in the proper direction.
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The latest draft of an amended zoning ordinance would change the existing "highway commercial" classification to "regional commercial," reflecting the desire of local residents and leaders to draw certain types of businesses to the main thoroughfares leading into and out of town.
Village President Pat Vailliencourt noted that this is another necessary step toward the regional approach to governance that is being fostered in the area.
"This is an excellent opportunity for us to take this to SWWCOG and have our regional partners look at this for the transportation corridors," Vailliencourt said.
SWWCOG is a coalition of political leaders from Bridgewater, Freedom, Manchester and Sharon townships, Manchester Village and Manchester Public Schools that meets monthly to discuss issues of mutual concern.
Council members looked over the many features of the proposed amended ordinance, its specifically permitted or conditional uses and those that might be allowed under a different zoning classification.
The parcels of property in the new district would be fairly large, a minimum of 10 acres, with a minimum road frontage of 660 feet.
The ordinance also called for building size requirements, but council members hesitated to commit to exact numbers without more research.
"We would make this compliment the Central Business District," said Vailliencourt, owner of a downtown business herself. "We want to keep the larger retail spaces out on the commercial corridors."
Village Manager Jeff Wallace predicted that without some sort of reasonable size limits, Manchester's downtown merchants would eventually disappear.
"This zoning is more for regional shopping uses, to steer the smaller businesses toward downtown," he said.
"Otherwise, it would suck all the businesses out of downtown out to the strip malls outside of town."
Council member Jordan Herron expressed his concern that the 10-acre minimum seemed "rather large for one company."
"We did that to keep it from getting divided over the years and losing its cohesiveness," Vailliencourt said. "Our plan is to have one developer controlling it, kind of like a site condo."
The council voted to approve the proposal's concept, but also to send it back to the Village Planning Commission to replace the allowed uses that had been deleted, and for recommendations on minimum square footage requirements.
"We have nothing in place now," Wallace said. "We only have C-1 and C-2, and we didn't want a bunch of strip malls popping up all over the place."
Vailliencourt said having the regional commercial district would attract businesses that cannot currently locate downtown.
"One of our main goals is to make it complement the downtown and provide services the downtown can't, such as theaters, bowling alleys and medical complexes," she said.
"This area is losing people every day who say they want those services, and if we won't provide them, they'll go wherever they have to to get them."
Edward Freundl is a reporter for Heritage Newspapers. He can be reached at 428-8173 or efreundl@heritage.com.
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