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During their last meeting of 2023, the Sudbury Select Board was accelerating to finish work on a zoning bylaw for firearms businesses. A three-member majority of the five-person board wanted to get it on the warrant for Annual Town Meeting by the deadline at the end of January.
To meet that deadline, they would need Town staff to conduct an analysis to see what combination of setbacks and other restriction would generate a sufficient number of parcels for firearms businesses to operate in Sudbury. The Select Board majority asked Town staff to conduct an analysis that reduces the setbacks for firearms businesses from rail trails and other sensitive/restricted uses. The initial draft of the bylaw had a 500-foot setback, and the majority asked Town staff to look at 100-foot and 250-foot setbacks.
The bylaw would, in addition to limiting the permissible locations for firearms businesses, cap the number that can get special permits to two in Sudbury, and apply several other regulations for the operations of these businesses.
In the packet for the meeting this week, Sudbury’s Director of Planning and Community Development provided the requested analysis. (Page 58) This was the primary focus of discussion during the Select Board meeting. In short, if they reduce the setbacks from the rail trails (Bruce Freeman Rail Trail and Mass Central Rail Trail) and all other restricted uses, to 250 feet, there are several parcels that would be eligible to apply for special permits to operate firearms businesses in ID-4 (Industrial District 4).
ID-4 is at the bottom of Goodman’s Hill Road at Boston Post Road, running along the southern side of Boston Post Road until the Wayland Board. That stretch of businesses includes Buddy Dog, Mercedes-Benz, Soul of India and much of the “Bougie Little Auto Mile,” as Sudbury Weekly likes to call it. But ID-4 is also bordered by residential uses on the north side of Boston Post Road, and directly to the west by The Coolidge. The general neighborhood includes a bike shop, multiple restaurants, a dance studio, a local coffee shop, a childcare facility and health services businesses.
The overall direction seemed to be that they would proceed with the bylaw using a 250 foot setback from sensitive/restricted uses, instead of the 500 foot setback in the initial draft of the bylaw. The bylaw, if it proceeds in this direction, would allow firearms businesses in all Industrial Districts, but no other districts. Then it would apply restrictions with a 250 foot setback from sensitive uses like childcare facilities and public parks. Once those restrictions are applied, the only parcels available to firearms businesses would be in ID-4. There was also some discussion of declassifying the rail trails as “public parks,” though there was a preference voiced for just reducing the setbacks from all sensitive uses from 500 feet to 250 feet. (2:05:06)
While the approach that was discussed would initially limit firearms businesses to ID-4, it’s possible that, as businesses open and close in any Industrial District, other parcels could qualify as permissible sites for firearms businesses. It comes down to restrictions in the bylaw. If a parcel is ruled out for a gun retailer solely because it’s too close to a daycare, but the daycare closes, then that parcel may become eligible to apply for a special permit to operate a firearm business. That could work in the other direction as well. For example, if a new daycare facility opened within 250 feet of the parcels in ID-4, it may make those parcels ineligible for a special permit. No such analysis was conducted for this week’s meeting, and there was no request for such an analysis to be done.
Town staff was given guidance to update the draft of the bylaw to reflect the setback strategy they discussed in the meeting. It’s expected to come back to the Select Board for further discussion in their next meeting, when they have all members present, as Member Roberts was unable to attend on Tuesday. In short: this bylaw may still be subject to significant changes as the warrant article deadline approaches.