Winters, Wright Vying for Planning Board Spot
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For the first time, voters will be able to select who they want on the Planning Board; all five seats are up for election and three of the incumbents are facing challengers.
That's the result a successful petition last spring to make the board more accountable to voters after a number of decisions and actions in recent years by the appointed panel, including its failure in at least one instance to conform to open meeting law.
Since then, several of the more controversial figures have failed or declined to be reappointed by the Selectmen. But the board has continued to be a lightning rod as the Village Beautiful struggles to balance its need for growth with its desire to remain a bucolic, academic retreat.
The current configuration is a good one, said incumbent Chris Winters of Church Street, who's running for the four-year seat.(After this election, one five-year seat will always be on the ballot.)
"I believe we have a Planning Board today that works well together and reflects a diversity of people and is objective," he said. "And I'd like to make sure that that continues to be the case."
Speaking last week in his office at Williams College, Winters stressed that voters should consider his background and experience in town government as well as his being a member of what he sees as an underrepresentated group — young parents with children in the schools.
The 35-year-old director for institutional research at the college has served on the board for nearly two years and is involved in what's become the noisiest of the three races.
Winters and his opponent, retired epidemiologist Nicholas H. Wright, have been debating each other in the letters to the editor section of the local papers in the days leading up to the election.
Winters says it's a matter of his experience, his investment in the town's future through his family and Wright's involvement in a lawsuit against the board that weighs in his favor.
<L2>Wright, of Old Farm Way, is among a dozen people who filed suit against the Planning Board over its approval of a subdivision off the unpaved Bee Hill Road. Winters, who was not a member of the board for that decision, is questioning his challenger's motives because of the lawsuit.
"You can't be simultaneously suing the Planning Board and claiming you have objectivity. I don't think that kind of transparent agenda has a place on a board that's now supposed to be representative of the broad citizenry of Williamstown," said Winters.
Wright, however, has vigorously defended both his right to sue and his ability to be objective. On Friday, he said he was disappointed that the allegations that his actions are somehow unethical continued to surface long after the state Ethics Commission put them to rest last year when another party in the suit, Ronald Turbin, successfully ran for selectman.
"I find it unfortunate that these allegations are coming up at the last minute," he said.
When asked if his participation in the lawsuit revealed his position on housing and other development, Wright replied: "Absolutely not."
"This is a problem with engineering" at a specific site, he said, referring to the concerns the parties involved had over the project's effect on water drainage and erosion on a steep hillside. The matter is still in Land Court.
Both men said they were being unfairly labeled to some extent — Winters as the pro-development candidate and Wright as the anti-development.
"I fear it's in people's minds because it's such a convenient label," said Winters. "I would challenge anyone to come up with a single vote or position [I've taken] that could be labeled, objectively, 'pro-development.'"
Four years ago, he was one of the leaders trying to change the Harriman-West Airport project that has affected a wide swath Williamstown.
"I was one of the key thorns in the side of that project," he said. "Is that something a pro-development activist would do? The label is misapplied."
Winters believes that "reasonable people should be able to do reasonable things on their property."
Wright, too, says being party to a lawsuit to stop one development doesn't mean he's against all development.
"This case that I'm against development is absolute rubbish," he said, adding he was in favor of the bylaw adding professional offices to the tourist business zone along Route 7.
If elected, he said he would call in members of the Chamber of Commerce to "hear their gripes" and speak with local builders to give the board a better handle on the needs of the community and developers. He also thinks the college should be better integrated into the town's master plan.
"I think we need to be clever about this," said Wright, who retired to Williamstown in 2000. "It's not simple. I'm not for a board that just vetoes everything."
He supports the master plan's action plan created four years ago and is calling for a "report card" on what's been done and how to move forward.
Winters, however, questioned Wright's understanding of the complexities inherent in the plan's goals, particularly the lack of associated costs.
"I want to advance these objectives, too," he said. "The difference is, I do with some understanding for the realities and constraints that we face."
The board in both its decisionmaking and planning capacities can have far-reaching impact on many levels of the town's operation and development, he said. "I understand how it's interconnected.
"The Planning Board doesn't operate in isolation. What the Planning Board does affects the Finance Committee, affects the Conservation Commission, affects the schools," continued Winters, who has served on both Finance and Conservation boards as well the Community Preservation Act Committee.
"These things come with trade-offs ... some people like to say they are for open space, affordable housing, but these things often come at the expense of one another. Williamstown has to get serious about what really matters."
Both men are for an open space bylaw but have strong reservations about the version being placed before town meeting for different reasons. Winters was the only board member to vote against it, saying it needs more work and more public discussion. Wright says its overcomplicated and could use more public input but supports the concept.
Winters said voters should consider his experience and ability to be objective when they head to the polls.
"The challenge of the Planning Board is trying to find that balance between the private good, private desire to build and the public good and how it affects the town," he said.
Wright said he had life experience, would work hard for the town and with other board members. He'd also like to cool the debate on development. "The temperature surrounding this is very high."
The polls will be open Tuesday, May 13, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Williamstown Elementary School. Absentee ballots are available in the town clerk's office until noon on Monday.
Also running for the Planning Board are Richard DeMayo, five years; Andrew Hogeland and incumbent George Sarrouf, one three-year seat; Ann McCallum and incumbent John Holden, one two-year seat, and incumbent Patrick Dunlavey, one year.
Running unopposed are Jane Allen and David Rempell for two three-year seats on the Board of Selectmen; Thomas Sheldon and Genevieve Driscoll, two three-years seats as library trustees, and Gerard Smith, one three-year term on the Williamstown School Committee.
"It's an important election and I hope that people take the time before or after work to get out and vote," said Winters. "It does have the potential to change the Planning Board significantly."
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| Christopher Winters | Richard DeMayo | Ann McCallum | John Holden | George Sarrouf | Patrick Dunlavey | Nicholas Wright | Andrew Hogeland |
