Thanks Kirsten for the thought-provoking ideas. I am sure they will come up when we update the Town's Master plan.

Any notion of when the Master Plan is planned on being updated?

Kirsten, that is a very good question and I absolutely love how you spent your day as Town Planner. If I were town Manager, I'd seed alternative career plans for Sudbury's town planner!!!

I could be wrong, yet believe the last update was 1999. In contrast, we have had the same Town Planner for at least that long. Sudbury's Town Planner is greatly responsible for the shift away from the town that used to be and the town that is. She was empowered when we brought in the 2002 / 2003 regime, or shall I say promoted them from the planning board and other town committees. I just do not see how we will ever be the best of Sudbury until our Town Planner steps back and away from her personal agenda of subsidized low income housing.

cucumber sandwiches are delicious!!

Thanks, Pat. It is a point of interest that my number one agenda item was in the spirit of making Sudbury "Sustainable". Declaring 100 % build out would go a long way toward analyzing what the current status of the Town as a developed unit coupled with the ability to reconfigure and re-use existing structures in a forward-thinking way while at the same time creating a National Identity that could be considered a model for other preservation-minded towns.

"National Identity"? my 16 year old son just asked--you bet! I answered. If we don't up the bar and start taking aggressive and pro-active positions on matters concerning 01776 then we will have been unsuccessful as Stewards of our own Town. Not a proud moment...

Larry O'Brien and Jody Kablack stated within the past year, Sudbury has 1500 more buildable lots. There is great contrast in this and declaring Sudbury built out at this point. Clearly that is an issue that divides this community.

Jody Kablack is the worst town planner in MA. Thanks to her Sudbury has become the laughing stock of the Metro West.

The issue is with Town Manager Maureen Valente. Her employees are allowed to run wild with no supervision. Jody Kablack should have been dismissed years ago. Sudbury has been so poorly planned it's not even funny. Beth Rust should have been dismissed weeks ago. How embarrassing is it to have a 3 time OUI offender representing Sudbury? It starts at the top. Valente must go. Then again according to John Drobinski she's the reason for our AAA bond rating. Hey John that makes ZERO sense. Do you honestly believe that Moodys and S&P have any idea who Maureen Valente is? What a joke.

A MORATORIUM on all new construction (this does not include work done on already existing structures that do not add on new space but remodel existing space) would allow the Town of Sudbury enough time to bring the budget into shape while gaining valuable insight and understanding about the future of the Town.

1500 lots and the Town will do nothing but grant permits left and right. The fact they are allowing 225 units of housing at the worst intersection in Sudbury says it all. They would rather jam condos in all over the place and squeeze developers for new tool sheds and money for traffic studies. If there was any planning in this town we would have a Town Center that people could enjoy. How many more banks do we really need on RT 20??

A clue, a clue, my kingdom for a CLUE!

If only one person in this pack of rabid dogs, nipping at the heals of those who serve their community and offer civil service at the expense of their very own familes had the slightest idea about the BIGGER picture! Let's keep this simple, as it would seen the collective IQ of this rant's participants is substantially less than our coveted zip code.

Sudbury is a Town, that sits within Massachusetts. Massachusetts is a Commonwealth and is part of the Republic called the United (though some here would argue, no doubt) States of America. Sudbury has Bylaws, largely stewarded by the Planning Board (not the Town Planner). Those Bylaws are subject to approval within the bounds of MGL - MA General Laws, that are in turn stewarded by the same incestuous hacks that are voted in year after year, because "they're a good guy/gal" form the hood.

All politics is local, but you need to go to Boston to make it count in Massachusetts!

Sudbury can NOT, nor can any single resident or town employee or Board or Committee, invoke the unilateral authority to make the kinds of sweeping changes Kirsten outlines. Nice soliloquy, but most of the changes you outline in your Milky Way Plan (I'm assuming it's from elsewhere in the galaxy where an hour is somewhere like 5 years of Earth time) would take umpteen meetings (Historical Commission, Historic Districts Comm., Land Acquisition Review Cmte., etc.) because we refuse to modernize our Town government, because you’re scared to death of change around here. Hello?! Board of Selectmen – 5! Representative Town Meeting (or better still - NO Town Meeting, because why can’t I just stand up and speak at the Committee meeting during decision deliberation?), why do I need the affirmation of TM?
Let’s pick just one example: Do you have ANY idea how obstructionist the Unitarian Church (so much for supporting its tenant of Reason) has been in allowing even curbing or sidewalks for the "new Town Center" project? Appalling - the Town should have just 'taken' the land! It's an eyesore to see mud and rock running through the intersection every time it rains. And the light that lets three cars through has been frustrating all 18,000 of the town's inhabitants, yet like sheep we do and say nothing.

Sudbury is no different from Southie in that the same picayune, myopic, parochial viewpoints incessantly infect the decision making process of making sure things remain the same ad infinitum, Guess what - - you can't stop change! Especially if you never change the dopes on Beacon Hill that do nothing to make things substantially better. Try voting for a few Independents or Republicans once in a while - maybe then we'd get some debate and some real changes that matter.

I applaud you for some out of the box thinking Kirsten. The fantasy prose went well with my morning joe. However, obstructionist legislation (building moratoriums) that limits the ability of an individual to achieve their right to the pursuit independent freedoms and capital sustainability as guaranteed in our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, that’s just crazy. After all, thank goodness, this isn’t Cambridge!

The answer to your last question is easy - a sewer for the Rte 20 businesses!

Now a question for you, through what mechanism would you instill this moratorium?

Kirsten, I am not a lawyer either, though I am fairly confident if responding that a moratorium on all new construction is nor a possibility, and it would be obstructionist. You cannot disallow private citizens, be they residential or commercial property owners, from developing their personal property assets. The only way to do this is through restrictive zoning, which doesn't work either because the level of enforcement that would be required to effectively eliminate any further development would be administratively prohibitive. Not to mention most such restrictive zoning amendments would be shot down by the state AG.