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Glocester Council sets Oct. 16 public hearing on FM Global plan-district rezoning and comprehensive-plan changes
Summary
The Glocester Town Council set a public hearing for Oct. 16 on Factory Mutual Insurance Company's request to consolidate about 853 acres into a single plan district and amend the town's comprehensive plan to allow industrial and new sustainable energy uses, including utility-scale solar, battery storage and wind turbines.
The Glocester Town Council on Sept. 4 set a public hearing for Oct. 16 on a proposal from Factory Mutual Insurance Company (FM Global) to create an FM Sustainable Plan District and to amend the town's comprehensive plan to reflect the change.
Town Planner Karen Scott told the council the company seeks to consolidate roughly 853 acres currently split across multiple lots into a single plan district and to add uses such as utility-scale ground-mounted solar, energy storage, canopy and rooftop solar, and wind turbines. "What they're looking to do is consolidate that 853 acres into 1 plan district," Scott said, "and ... add several sustainable energy uses, which are kind of the bigger things that they're proposing."
The plan district proposal was introduced as a first reading. Under the process explained by Scott, the council must set a public hearing and refer the proposal to the planning board for an advisory opinion; the planning board will review the proposed uses, setbacks and any conditions before reporting back to the council. The council approved a motion to set Oct. 16 as the public hearing date and referred the matter to the planning board.
Scott and other council members noted a plan-district zoning would travel with the land: if FM Global later sold property within that district, future owners would be able to use the property under the district's rules unless the council later changed them. "Once you change that zoning into zoning... if they left and they sold it somewhere else, they would be entitled to the same uses that are in that plan district," Scott said.
Council members flagged that the ordinance language should be clear and durable so future officials and property owners can understand what uses are allowed without continually chasing historical minutes. The council will consider the planning-board advisory opinion and public comment at or after the Oct. 16 hearing before making a final decision.
Next steps: planning-board review, public hearing on Oct. 16 and subsequent council decision or additional referrals.
