Special Town Meeting (By Citizen Petition)
May 1st, 7:30 p.m.
Bellingham High School Auditorium
On Wednesday, May 1st, the Town of Bellingham will hold a Special Town Meeting, called by Citizen Petition. Voters at this meeting will vote “yes” or “no” to the following:
To add the following definition to the provisions of Section 240-32.
Warehouse: a building or facility with the primary function is to provide for the commercial storage and/or distribution of a wide variety of merchandise, goods, and/or other products. This shall include those facilities designed to store products in preparation for shipping and where those products are generally not made available for retail sale at the facility. Warehouses shall include those facilities for short or long-term storage, and, in this manner shall also include fulfillment or “last mile” facilities for the short-term storage and distribution of items made available through online or similar sales. The storage or parking of tractor - trailers, trucks or trailers used in moving goods to or from warehouses is also included within this definition.
The term warehouses shall not include retail self-storage facilities where members of the public can lease portions of a building for storage of household or personal goods or other items not intended for distribution or sale.
To Amend Section 240-31, the Use Regulation table, by changing “Yes” to “No” for Warehouses in the Industrial Zone, thereby making Warehouses a prohibited use in all zoning districts within the Town of Bellingham.
Bellingham resident Steve Goyette gathered the 200 signatures for this petition. The married Bellingham native, with two grown children, believes the town is going in the wrong direction.
“From my perspective, the warehouses have been approved irresponsibly, because the industrial parcels are right next to residential areas. Next to residential areas, we should be looking at different types of industrial buildings. I’ve spoken to a handful of residents who’ve actually moved out of town specifically because of this.” Goyette cites problems with groundwater, traffic backup, and trash from truckers, including plastic bottles of urine, as some of the complaints he’s heard from neighborhoods next to warehouses in town.
