Foes of King St. Rezone Aren't Quitting

After being rebuffed by the Town Council once, foes of a plan to rezone two residential lots to allow a gas station project next to the King Street Fire Station are vowing to make their presence known next week, on July 17 at the Town Council meeting on that date.

And, in the  mean time, they have put together a website and online petitions. "We expect this zoning bylaw to go up for a final vote on 7/17. Franklin is better than this, and we are doing our best to show non-abutters why objection to this type of political favor is in everyone’s interest," says one of the organizers. The rezoning is being pushed forward by a local developer, Paul Evans, formerly a Franklin first responder. Changing the status of the two parcels seems to resemble, "spot zoning," a practice described on the web site of Boston law firm Phillips & Angley as:

The conventional meaning of spot zoning is the process of focusing on a small section of land to be used in a completely different fashion than the surrounding land for the sole benefit of the landowner and the disadvantage of nearby landowners. For this reason, spot zoning is considered the opposite of plan zoning.

 The website and petition for those opposed to the rezoning  is available here:  http://no2kingst.com