Carver Planning Board Continues King Richard's Fair Hearing, Sets MBTA Zoning Timeline

CARVER — July 10, 2025 — Carver Planning Board delays King Richard's Fair vote and launches MBTA zoning process with outside consultant. A 38-minute gap in Area 58 TV's recording of the first King Richard's Fair hearing left the board unable to use the Mullen Rule to qualify two absent members, reducing eligible voters to three and requiring unanimity — an impossibility with a fourth member out ill — so the board voted 4-0 to continue the public hearing, which covers a request to construct 40 wooden structures at 5-9 Edaville Avenue, to July 15 at 7 p.m. in Town Hall Meeting Room 1. Town Planner Kevin Robertson then briefed the board on the town's MBTA Communities zoning effort, reporting that Barrett Planning Group — led by consultant Judy Barrett, described by Robertson as "the leading expert on zoning and housing" — is being retained at no cost to the town through the Massachusetts Housing Partnership's free technical assistance program. Carver, classified as a transit-adjacent community, must zone for at least 235 multifamily units at 15 dwelling units per acre with a 10 percent affordable minimum; Robertson said the board is targeting an August 25 opening of the zoning public hearing and a possible September 15 special town meeting, with Barrett Planning's first available consultation date set for August 5.