CANTON – Residents will be asked at the annual town meeting next month whether they support reducing the size of house lots so more homes can be built in the proposed new village center.
About a dozen people turned out Friday night to hear an update on plans to build a village center out of the floodplain on a 30-acre parcel off Route 108 along the Edmunds Road.
Diane Ray, the project director, said the original plan had called for commercial businesses and a variety of housing. With the need for low- and moderate-income housing greater now than originally thought, she said the most recent plan calls for about 40 house lots.
But before that can happen, residents have to approve modifying the town’s ordinance to allow 10,000-square-foot lots, provided they are served by municipal water and sewer and a sufficient amount of open space is maintained.
“We’re buying out 40 to 50 houses from the flood zone. We have young families who want starter homes and senior citizens looking for smaller homes,” she said.
If residents approve a reduction in a house lot size, then 40 lots could be established at the proposed village center. Not all the lots would be the smaller size, but a change would allow some to be 10,000 square feet, she said.
“Some wouldn’t mind a smaller lot,” said Ernest Edmunds. “But others would.”
Ray said people who sold their homes under the Flood Mitigation Program because they were in the flood zone would have first chance to move into the new village center.
She said the final draft of the village center plan will be available at the March 11 town meeting. A public hearing on the reduction in lot sizes will be held at 8:30 a.m., a half hour prior to the town meeting.
Residents on Friday also heard a presentation by Sue Gammon who is spearheading a recreational trail plan for establishment on 20 to 30 acres of the lands bought out under the Flood Mitigation Program. Much of this acreage is along Route 108 and Route 140.
She is applying for a $100,000 grant from the state’s Department of Conservation for use in the trail project.
Residents at the town meeting must approve the application. She said the grant would be an 80/20 match, including the town’s share which could be in-kind or volunteer labor.
“The point is to make the area attractive for in-town and out-of-town people. We have the potential for it,” she said.
In other matters regarding the flood buyout program and new village proposal, Ray said:
• she is applying for another Community Development Block Grant of $250,000 to assist in the purchase of homes or to help people move who have accepted the appraised value for their homes;
• about two dozen homeowners are under contract and have either sold their homes to the town or are preparing to do so;
• seven have moved into new homes;
• 10 are in the process of getting appraisals so that they can sell their homes; and
• she is applying for a $30,000 federal facade grant to assist the new owners of Canton Variety with the renovation of the business. The money must be evenly matched by the business owner. Diane and Christopher Campbell bought the property last year.
The Flood Mitigation Program was prompted by the repeated flooding of many homes located in the flood plain. The last flood, in 2003, caused an estimated $2 million damage.
Ray, as head of the Special Projects Committee, has written successful grants for several million dollars to begin the buy-out of many of the 65 properties located in the floodplain.
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