The Story
A new housing development has been proposed to the Bedford town planner. Yep, we’re back to the apartments drama already.
Wait, what?
The plan is titled Sebbins Brook Crossing, with two phases aiming to accomplish workforce housing and commercial development. It currently proposes 238 new apartments, with more new stores TBD. Now, you might be thinking that you’ve already heard a lot about apartments in recent years. That’s because this is not the first, second, or third proposal, but the fourth. Yeah.
The fourth one?
133 apartments are already in construction on South River Road, right behind Chipotle and all that. As well as this, 93 more are being prepared for construction behind our very own Bedford High School (those are probably the ones you heard your parents complain about.) The third plan would be 200 Market and Main luxury apartments on South River Road, if they are approved on Sept 14 – hey, that’s today!
What do people think?
Here comes the drama. There have been many resident complaints about new developments and zoning laws, specifically for the Market and Main apartments. The truth is that several changes in zone policy have been approved via voting. The polls actually granted permission to develop workforce housing, but not for commercial development. The workforce housing would need waivers to atone for the size of the apartment units as well.
But wait, there’s more!
Another big citizen’s concern is that Bedford is becoming too “urban” (their words, not ours!). The Bedford Residents Association has taken a particularly strong stance, saying that the Market and Main apartments specifically goes against the “traditional New England town center.” They also mention the zoning thing again, which seems to just keep coming up. And of course, yet another petition has been started against more new apartments. Hey, it worked for the school board last week!
What else?
Apparently, discontentment about Bedford housing goes both ways. Governor Sununu himself has previously spoken on the housing situation in Bedford, criticizing the lack of affordable family options. Assistant Planning Director Mark Connors said it new apartments would solve this issue, addressing a “significant need for workforce housing regionally.”
The Runaway
Further development is probably inevitable, so keep your bag of popcorn ready.
What To Say…
When you’re probably wondering if the bees have been saved…
You might want to learn how to play a sport, because according to an email from the guidance department, clubs and other organizations will not be running until we get “into the swing of things” with the hybrid schedule. But fear not, because Mr. Jozokos’s all-knowing guide to everything states that clubs can happen, as long as they meet the following requirements: the advisor is still available to run the club, everyone can wear masks, social distancing can be maintained, and students can get themselves to and from the activity because the district can’t provide buses (is that anything new though??). The only club that we know that is running is marching band, because it’s apparently also a class too? Anyway, hopefully the bee savers can meet all of these requirements so that they can continue their mission. We quite don’t know when we will be considered to be “in the swing of things,” but until then, at least we get sports, kind of.
When going to school is such a hassle…
Go remote! As you know, there was the option to go to school fully online this year, which some of our student body is doing. Unfortunately, the remote students we have talked to said there had been very little communication to said students. The only email that students received talked about a Q and A for the remote families for each grade, which was held in the theater during the last week of August. Other emails that remote kids have gotten were about hybrid learning, and according to the online kids, those emails did not answer the questions they had about being remote. As far as communication from teachers, some have reached out to their remote students, others have not. Two remote students told us that they didn’t hear from a few of their teachers and didn’t get the classroom code for the first day of school. One remote student told us that they got absolutely nothing for the first day. Yikes. Maybe they should figure that out?
Things To Know
We Mentioned this Earlier
There’s a vote to approve the new Market and Main apartments tonight. Let’s see what happens.
A sports game?!
Just kidding. Jury’s still out whether we can attend those yet. Hey, remember when Bedford was a sports town?