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12/12/2024 Bayside Editorial: Design standards will serve town … for now

Design standards will serve town … for now

The Town of Berlin made a major move in a positive direction this week when the Town Council agreed to adopt Worcester County’s building design guidelines and standards for commercial properties.

By doing so, town government has given contractors and developers a foundation, as it were, on which to build their visions while staying within parameters that ought to pass muster with the town’s planning commission.

The council’s incorporation of these standards in the planning playbook, after all, is the result of the planning commission’s inability to tell developers in clear terms what it wants to see in their proposed projects.

This was painfully apparent when the commission went around and around over the designs proposed for the Microtel Inn and Suites and Wawa convenience store projects. Members didn’t like what they saw but could not explain to the applicants what they wanted to see.

This “I’ll know it when I see it” approach to encouraging designs that are compatible with the town’s image wasn’t just frustrating for developers and the council, it also added to the expense of the projects, as their paid advocates and experts had to fumble in the dark for answers.

Using the county’s guidelines, however, should clear some of the fog that tends to settle over such construction proposals when the discussion turns to aesthetics.

They won’t cause all the hazy admonitions and directions to disappear, because these standards were created for the county, not Berlin, which requires a more specific approach to determining architectural appearances.

That, however, will be addressed when the town fills its planning director vacancy. But in the meantime, the county’s design book gives it something work with, and that’s no little thing. It’s a big step forward.