Hopedale Town Meeting Approves Adult Entertainment Overlay District 67-31

HOPEDALE -- May 17, 2016, Hopedale Annual Town Meeting approves adult entertainment overlay district and $21.1 million budget in contentious session. In a secret ballot with 98 votes cast, residents approved 67-31 a Planning Board proposal to confine adult entertainment businesses to a defined 18-to-19-acre overlay district along Route 140 near the Upton town line, a measure that had failed by two votes at a prior town meeting. Town Counsel Lauren Goldberg confirmed that a complete prohibition on such businesses would be unconstitutional under court rulings, and Planning Board Chairman Keys said the overlay "least impacts the majority" of residents. Paul Lawson, an owner of one of five affected West Street parcels, presented a survey of 331 Massachusetts municipalities showing none had placed an adult entertainment overlay district over existing single-family homes, and resident Melissa Maron Smith told the meeting, "I'm a resident of Hopedale. I'm your sister. I'm your daughter." The $21,139,985 FY2017 operating budget passed unanimously and included a last-minute amendment adding $45,000 for a shared parks-and-highway employee, with $30,000 raised through taxation and $15,000 transferred from the parks salary line. Town Meeting also approved a $50,000 appropriation for invasive weed treatment in Hopedale Pond and authorized a 20-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with a solar developer for a facility at 300 South Main Street, projected to generate roughly $360,000 in structure payments over the life of the deal.