WINCHESTER'S PLANNING BOARD,   Lance Grenzeback, Chairman

 

    Grenzeback responded to questions posed by Jean Herbert           

 

Lance Grenzeback grew up in Winchester and attended the Winchester Public Schools.  He and his wife Joan raised their two children here.  He is a senior vice-president of Cambridge Systematics, Inc., a national transportation policy, planning, and economic consulting firm. 

 

Lance was elected chair of the Planning Board last year.  He ran for Planning Board because he believes that the  Board could help integrate and coordinate the work of the Town’s many committees, boards, and commissions.  He had observed that these groups—elected, appointed, and volunteer—did excellent work, but often operated as silos: they had little time to coordinate with each other and examine the longer-term impacts of their decisions.  With his colleagues on the Planning Board, he has worked to improve communication among these groups  and Town departments to better coordinate and steer development of the town. 

 

The Planning Board’s major initiative is to update the town’s Master Plan, which was last reviewed in 1953.  The new plan will be developed in phases.  The Master Plan Phase I Report will address housing, neighborhoods, the Town center, and overall economic development —critical issues in this time of economic crisis as well as for the future of the town.  Subsequent phases will deal with transportation and circulation, open space and recreation, historic and cultural resources, natural resources, municipal facilities, services and infrastructure, and governance of development.  The Board will publish a draft Phase I Report this spring and hopes that residents will read it and respond with their ideas. 

 

Another important initiative of the Board is to revise the Town's Zoning By-law.  The last comprehensive revision took place in the mid-1970s.  There have been dozens of amendments since then, resulting in a By-law that is complex, poorly organized, threaded with inconsistencies, and often written in outdated and sometimes ambiguous language.  This revision will be done in phases, too.  The first phase will be a straightforward reorganization with few substantive changes.  Prior amendments will be moved to their appropriate sections; definitions will be brought together into a single section; references to state statutes and case law will be updated; the document will be renumbered; and a more user-friendly and accessible electronic version will be created and posted on the Town’s website.  The Board will ask for approval of the reorganization of the Zoning By-law at this spring’s Town Meeting. 

 

The Planning Board continues to work with the Board of Selectmen, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Conservation Commission, the School Committee, the Housing Partnership Board, and Town Meeting members (through the Master Plan Steering Committee) to set priorities for the next round of Zoning By-law revisions.  These may include addition of a community housing by-law; redefinition of the town’s zoning district boundaries and requirements to better protect neighborhood character; creation of a zoning overlay district for the Town center to encourage mixed-use redevelopment; and creation of regulations to manage the introduction of solar panels and other energy conservation measures. 

 

Grenzeback believes that if the Planning Board is to be effective, it must continue to be pro-active and forward-thinking rather than waiting for problems to arise.

Click here for Planning Board website