The Zoning Advisory Committee at its meeting Monday night looked at several sites to see if they might be feasible to include in Hopkinton’s proposal to meet MBTA Communities Act requirements.

The Planning Board requested that ZAC reconsider its originally proposed zoning districts because the Town Meeting article describing the plan was narrowly rejected at May’s Annual Town Meeting by eight votes, with 118 in favor and 126 opposed.

Some opposition came from residents who live at or near The Preserve condominium complex because their property was included in the zoning, although it appears unlikely to be redeveloped in the near future. Also included in the original proposal, which had received kudos from the state for adherence to compliance guidelines, was a portion to the downtown area and the Carbone’s Restaurant property on Cedar Street.

The town must establish a district of reasonable size (at least 50 acres) and allow for at least 750 units in Hopkinton — although the units do not need to be developed — in order to comply with the law. The state’s deadline for compliance looms on Dec. 31.

A Special Town Meeting is expected to be held in December so residents can vote on a potentially revised plan and to receive more information based on questions asked during May’s Annual Town Meeting.

At the July 15 Planning Board meeting, two opinions emerged on how to proceed. One was that the map needed to be redrawn because keeping it would not represent “the will of Town Meeting,” according to Planning Board chair Rob Benson. The other was that the original proposal should be kept because it also represented about half of the Town Meeting votes and that information could have been presented in a more comprehensive way to answer Town Meeting members’ questions at the time.

ZAC looks at feasibility of several properties

ZAC first looked at a map suggested by the Planning Board, which Principal Planner John Gelcich displayed. In addition to keeping the downtown area, it replaced The Preserve and Carbone’s with the Woodview at Legacy Farms apartment complex and the Windsor at Hopkinton apartment and condominium complex.

According to the MBTA’s compliance model, Windsor at Hopkinton contributes 35.3 acres and 530 units with 17.7 units per acre to the compliance requirement and replaces both Carbone’s and The Preserve in the proposed Upper Cedar Street District. Woodview has 18.2 acres and a unit capacity of 273 with 15 units per acre.

Because Windsor was built under Chapter 40B, developers were able to forego town zoning regulations as long as state criteria were met, Gelcich explained. Because it was built under a comprehensive permit, it is “unclear” if the MBTA Communities zoning designation would allow the development of more units there or pull the development out of the comprehensive permit and then build new units under the MBTA Communities zoning.

The conditions on the site, Gelcich said, “may prove too onerous for developers.”

It was later referred to as the proposed Lumber Street subdistrict because of its proximity to the street.

ZAC chair Ted Barker-Hook noted that the southern portion of the Windsor lot is completely unbuilt. This raised a concern that the land there potentially could become new housing more quickly, which seemed to be in opposition to the town’s original goal of slower-paced housing development.

It is unclear whether the 40B approval would preclude development of that land. But if the state would allow it, that southern arm potentially could be developed under the MBTA Communities Act, Barker-Hook said.

He added later that including either Legacy Farms North or Legacy Farms South as part of the MBTA Communities zoning would put the town into “a legal morass that would make it unworkable.”

Another factor Select Board member Amy Ritterbusch pointed out is that the Lumber Street property was developed under a host community agreement with the town. This meant that the town would provide water and sewer infrastructure in exchange for the developer providing other amenities. She asked how this agreement would be impacted by the potential rezoning of that property as part of the MBTA Communities district. Gelcich said this would need to be reviewed by town counsel.

Planning Board member Vikasith Pratty said he has been asked by residents exactly how much money Hopkinton will lose in state grant funding if it decides not to comply with the state mandate.

Gelcich said there is no way to put a monetary value on state grant funding lost on future projects because no one knows what the projects will be.

Regarding noncompliance, the state could sue the town, as it is currently doing with Milton. Barker-Hook pointed out an irony if the state ended up suing Hopkinton for noncompliance, which he found “supremely absurd.”

“The goofy part of this is, if we didn’t comply and if we got sued, our tax money as Hopkintonians would go to town counsel to defend us,” he said, “while our Massachusetts tax money would go to the state to sue us.”

Ritterbusch added that there are new grants the state is offering only to communities that comply with the zoning requirement.

Pratty suggested adding the shopping districts next to the Lumber Street district, one of which includes Starbucks and a bank. Barker-Hook expressed some concern about losing some of the town’s commercial tax base with the inclusion of that land.

Looking at the downtown subdistrict, it was suggested that the Domino’s pizza shop and the bank building might be able to be included.

Barker-Hook also mentioned several properties that had been reviewed by ZAC but ultimately were not included in the proposed map. They included the current Elmwood School building and the Indian Brook Condominiums complex. Elmwood would require an onerous Town Meeting process, while Indian Brook seemed to be a better option than Windsor because of traffic concerns.

Another option he mentioned was the Walcott Valley condominium complex, which is closer to downtown and the MWRTA bus stop.

Barker-Hook also mentioned potentially including the Hopkinton Country Club in the zoning, which had not been discussed previously. Members, including Barker-Hook, gave that option a tepid response to putting it on the list. The Hopkinton Sportsmen’s Association was also not considered a good option by members.

The Golden Pond facility was briefly discussed as a potential option, but traffic was considered a negative factor.

Gelcich said he would look at whether Indian Brook, Walcott Valley and Golden Pond would work with downtown as a compliant MBTA Communities district.

68-70 South Street/Hayward Street rezoning proposal continued

The rezoning proposal for 68-70 South Street/Hayward Street was postponed until the next meeting at the request of the applicant. The next ZAC meeting will be held on Aug. 12 at 7 p.m.