Residents press Templeton Planning Board to add town‑meeting approval, ban certain recycling processes

At a Town of Templeton Planning Board meeting, members of the group Templeton Community Against Toxic Waste urged the board to amend zoning to require town‑meeting approval for projects that include “waste to energy, waste to fuel, or any molecular conversion process” and to prohibit incineration or high‑heat facilities that produce precursors to fuel.

The request grew out of local concern about a proposed advanced‑recycling/pyrolysis project near Baldwinville and a moratorium on certain plants that the town adopted after a December special town meeting. Group member Julie said the proposed bylaw language would force a two‑thirds town‑meeting vote for those projects, and that the group had drafted wording for commercial‑industrial zoning districts.

The debate focused on two lines of response: residents seeking a zoning change or a bylaw that would give the entire town a direct vote on certain industrial projects, and planning board members who said the board’s special‑permit and site‑review processes already provide tools to evaluate and, if necessary, deny proposed developments.

"Any project that includes waste to energy, waste to fuel, or any molecular conversion process must be…