Farmers’ market approved

 

Selectmen take over common events

By Jonathan Cook

Turley Publications Reporter

WEST BROOKFIELD – The Common Committee’s handling of a farmers’ market proposal has resulted in the board of selectmen asserting its authority over all events on the common.

The selectmen’s’ first official act last week was to vote unanimously to allow a farmers' market.

Back in June 2009, resident Amy Dugas asked the Common Committee to consider allowing a weekly farmers’ market during the growing season. After researching what makes a successful market, Dugas said she settled on Wednesday afternoons because other nearby towns already have weekend markets.

But the proposal was apparently lost and one member of the committee told Dugas that the Common Overlay District required her to get a special permit.

Dugas then researched the overlay district and came to the conclusion that it applied only to the neighborhood surrounding the common and not to the common itself.

She then re-applied to the Common Committee and met with them in February. At that meeting, she was repeatedly told that “for-profit” activities are not allowed on the common in spite of a distinct absence of any reference to “for-profits” in the bylaw. Aside from that, Dugas has always maintained that the event will be non-profit and run in a similar fashion to the Asparagus Festival – an event organized by Dugas in her capacity on the Asparagus Festival Committee.

Common Committee member Sarah Allen had consulted with Town Counsel Barbara St. Andre the day before the February meeting, telling the attorney in an email that the committee had already denied Dugas’ proposal. St. Andre later stated that she had reviewed the zoning map and found that the common lies within the overlay district and therefore a farmers’ market requires a special permit.

However, at the April 26 public hearing to consider changing the by-law, it was revealed that the zoning map of the overlay district does not include the common, but only the surrounding neighborhood, just as Dugas had said from the beginning.

According to Planning Board Member Mert Kenniston, the exclusion of the common from the restrictive overlay district “is consistent with how the common was deeded and with its historical use.”

Outgoing Board of Selectmen Chair Tom Long explained that back in the 1800’s the Common Committee was voted in by the town to take care of the common, but not to regulate its use. “Over the years, people came to the committee for approval,” he said.

But now, selectmen have decided that the common, like all town property, will be regulated by the selectmen.

Meanwhile, Dugas is going ahead with forming a committee to operate the market. That committee will then meet with selectmen to iron out details.