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The Planning Board met on February 12 and took in a presentation from BSC Group. They’ve been tasked with conducting a Route 20 Corridor Study. The objectives were laid out quite clearly by former Sudbury Director of Planning and Community Development, Adam Duchesneau. Duchesneau now works at BSC Group, and has extensive knowledge of Sudbury, as well as the Route 20 corridor.
BSC’s work will include a comprehensive inventory of business uses and land uses along Route 20 in Sudbury. But they’re also going to hold a series of stakeholder meetings in the coming months. The final report is estimated to be complete by June of this year.
The Planning Board members discussed the importance of clear communication with the public about what exactly is possible for development on Route 20. Without Town sewers, and with other limiting factors along the corridor, they seemed nervous that residents might think a major near-term transformation was possible.
Sudbury’s current Director of Planning and Community Development, Adam Burney, reiterated that he is not a fan of economic development. “I hate economic development because there’s no good way to do it, everybody thinks it means some thing different, and it’s really a decades-long kind of action as opposed to… like everything we do now isn’t going to bear fruit for another ten or more years.” (13:30)
But Burney was optimistic about a focused effort along Route 20. He noted: “And I know that Route 20 has been a challenging place over the years in Sudbury, and it’s one place that I think shifting the paradigm of development is really possible in the short term. This board and Adam and his predecessors have done that through things like Meadow Walk, and I think that there are other opportunities for that along the corridor.”
There will be opportunities for the public to engage in the process, and several status updates will occur in board meetings in the coming months. If you’re interested in the topic, you should keep an eye out for notifications from the Town.