Bridgewater's Vision to Reality: Change
With the start of a New Year many of us make resolutions to make changes. These changes can cover a wide myriad of areas - diet, exercise, attitude…the list can go on and on. Change is natural, it’s an evolution, change can happen whether it is planned or not. In May of 2022 the Town Adopted a Comprehensive Master Plan which set forth policies, objectives and goals that the community felt were important for the future of Bridgewater which is, in effect, change. This past June, implementation of many of the elements within the Comprehensive Master Plan began to be executed with the Vision to Reality (V2R) initiative coming to life. While to some it may appear that nothing has changed, in fact a great deal of effort and success has been realized in building the foundation for change.
Community engagement is something we feel very strongly about in communicating what changes are proposed as part of V2R. We organized a very successful community workshop in September in addition to numerous other smaller community meetings. We launched a concerted effort to assist existing small businesses with free one-on-one consulting services and a series of informative workshops. Those efforts are continuing in 2024. We initiated discussions with Bridgewater State University and the MBTA to relocate the existing train platform to the Spring Street parking lot, as well as began evaluating the possibility of the redirection of wastewater flow from the University to the Department of Corrections treatment facility.
One of the most transformative actions for change is ongoing within the Planning Board and Town Council as they continue to consider significant changes to the Town’s zoning ordinance which would allow for significant changes to how the Town moves forward with new development and investment in the community. Already, there is significant interest by the development community motivated by the prospect of changes to how certain projects get approved. The proposed zoning amendments are specifically written to create a balance between what is economically feasible for the developer and what is acceptable to the community.
Expanding the commercial tax base is essential for the financial well-being of Bridgewater so that necessary improvements and expansion of infrastructure can occur. Greater restaurant, housing and shopping choices are expected results from changing some of our current zoning. Change can be hard and sometimes difficult to see, but it happens. Choosing the type of change the majority of residents have expressed that they would like to see is what we will continue to pursue in 2024.