The Planning Board is requesting several zoning upgrades at Town Meeting along Route 28, Cranberry Highway, in West Wareham.

Article 51 consists of two sections: Section A amends the zoning of parcels roughly bordered by the Five Corners (the intersection of Route 28, Doty Street and Carver Road just beyond Tremont Mill Pond) on the east, Route 495 to the north, and Route 58 on the west from Commercial Strip to Commercial General. Section B amends property from Commercial Strip to Mr-30, zoning that allows for multiple-residences at moderate to high density, between the shore of Tremont Mill Pond and Weaver Street then Cranberry Highway, until it intersects at the Five Corners. (Click attached pdf for bigger graphic.)

The change was voted to Further Study at the April 2006 Town Meeting, but the Planning Board wants to revisit the article in light of proposed commercial plaza development at the R.F. Morse property in Rochester.

George Barrett, chairman of the Planning Board, said that the articles are meant to "clean up" the zoning and also to help prevent some of the problems associated with Cranberry Highway in East Wareham.

"Cranberry Highway has grown to where the road can't handle all the demand on it," Barrett said.

Commercial Strip permits almost any kind of commercial development, Barrett explained, whereas Commercial General is more restrictive - most notably, fast-food drive-thrus are forbidden and building footprints are limited to prevent big-box stores.  The resulting development will be similar but a little smaller scale than that allowed in Rochester.

"The end result is that we will compliment each other," Barrett said. "We don't want it to look like two different worlds, but we don't want to create safety issues which tend to follow the drive-thrus."

The changes will reflect the wishes of the West Wareham study group that participated in the zoning rewrite a few years ago, Barrett said.

"They've dictated to us that this is what they want the town to look like."

The Planning Board also is recommending a zoning change on land at between the intersections of Cranberry Highway and Route 28 and Charlotte Furnace Road. The land is currently zoned Industrial, Commercial Strip and MR-30, and Article 52 asks that it be changed to Commercial General.  This will effectively restrict the big-box stores to Wareham Crossing.