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Town Authors A Comment Letter For Rice Pond Village
The lack of transparency from Sean Hendricks, Conor McCormick, and Mary Krumsiek has raised questions about their actions and motivations regarding the proposed Rice Pond Village project. One one hand the Millbury Board of Selectmen claims that they do not endorse the proposed Rice Pond Village project, but on the other hand, the included "comment letter" clearly endorses the project.
Railroad Denies Request
The Providence and Worcester Railroad (P&W) will respectfully be unable to provide any funding for this project at this time. The Rice Road crossing currently meets standard requirements for the existing conditions and the P&W is unable to spend its' limited funding on replacing railroad assets that have not yet reached the end of their lifecycle.
Railroad Contribution Letter
In the interest of improving safety, the Planning Board wants the developer to absorb the costs of widening Rice Road to a uniform 22' paved width (including the 19' wide section within the railroad right-of-way), along with several other off-site improvements including improvements to vehicular and pedestrian safety along Rice Road.
$20K For Offsite Improvements
On Monday, December 13, 2021, James Tetreault, from Azimuth Land Design, LLC, the project engineer for the proposed Rice Pond Village project responded in writing to questions from Charles Hunter, of the Providence & Worcester Railroad (a subsidiary of Genesee and Wyoming Railroad) in a letter to the Town of Millbury Planning Board with the following exchange.
Waivers Should Not Be Granted
The proposed Rice Pond Village project is not in the "public interest" and therefore none of the requested waivers should be granted by the Millbury Planning Board. If you read through some (not all) of the applicable regulations (below), it should be easy to determine there is no "public interest" gained from this proposed project that would necessitate the granting of any of the requested waivers.
Proposed Project At 17 Rice Road Will Destroy Neighborhood
It is April 2021, I walk out to my mailbox and find a letter with no return address listed. In large bold font the letter states, "52 Condominiums Proposed." Reading through the fine print, I can see this proposed development is at 17 Rice Road. As a direct abutter to the proposed project, I found myself in a state of shock. How can this be happening? Who would propose such a monstrosity in this small neighborhood?