Franklin MAtters Weekly: "Summer's here and the time is right Talkin’ ‘bout zoning"

Calling out around the Town

Are you ready for a brand-new heat

Summer's here and the time is right

Talkin’ ‘bout zoning along the street https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HasaQvHCv4w

Or is it?

With apologies to David Bowie & Mick Jagger for redoing the lyrics of their Live-Aid performance of “Dancin’ in the street”

The outlook for current and future meetings concern hot topics around housing developments and zoning approvals for future developments. All in an attempt to address our housing issues.

Yes, affordability is a key factor and due to both Federal and State regulations, there is little we, in Franklin, have direct control over for affordability.

We do have control over our zoning however. We can continue to keep multiple variances required for every project to ensure local control remains in the hands of the Planning Board, ZBA and others in the approval process.

Or we can consider crafting the regulations to enable more ‘by right’ approvals. Clearly these changes would be within reason, and should be more reasonable than we have today.

Be part of the process by watching the Planning board and ZBA meetings this week. The next Council meeting will also take up the ‘friendly 40b’ policy again. It was tabled for future discussion during last week’s lengthy and only July Council meeting.

The Town Council August 13 meeting likely will also be lengthy as it is the only one for this summer month.

*** Meeting schedule and agendas as of Town page 7/25/25, 10:00 PM

Planning Board Meeting

Monday, July 28 Time: 7:00 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_07282025-1833

Massachusetts Strategic Health Group Meeting

Tuesday, July 29 Time: 1:00 PM

https://ma-franklin.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_07292025-1836

Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) Meeting

Thursday, July 31 Time: 7:30 PM

https://ma-franklin.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_07312025-1830

*** Looking back at the week that was ***

The major meeting of the week was the single July meeting for the Town Council. It was a lengthy one consuming almost 5 hours. The recap, video and audio of the meeting is available.

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2025/07/town-council-spends-almost-5-hours_26.html

The Town Council Quarterbacking session for the July meeting will be available mid-week (approx. 7/29-7/30)

There are two worthy interviews to share:

Chris Flynn talks about his Horace Mann project. He has developed a script for a 4-part video series on the life of Horace that he is ready to film and is looking for actors to fulfill the roles in Horace's life. Listen here -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2025/07/actor-chris-could-use-your-help-in-this.html

Amy Adams talks about her "Healing with HeART" projects, the newest of them opens on the Natick Town Common. She creates a "wind phone" following the lead of a Japanese gentleman initially although there are hundreds if not thousands of "wind phones" around the world. Listen here -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2025/07/amy-adams-talks-about-wind-phone.html

For all the meetings and cultural events, check out the calendar at Franklin.news where each day, that day's events are posted on the top of the page, the TV and radio schedules are on the bottom, and all the other goodness falls in-between.

Town calendar -> https://www.franklinma.gov/Calendar.aspx

Community calendar -> https://bit.ly/FranklinCommunityCalendar

Subscribe for the daily dose of information -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/p/welcome.html

Subscribe for the weekly dose of information -> https://www.franklinmattersweekly.org/p/subscribe-for-email.html

Bonus - YouTube has the audio output of these