Decision to remove Jay Szklut as Board's staff after memo blow up; possible delay of new rezoning of South Pleasant Street – town's most desirable development – by six months or more.
In the most public of professional divorces in recent Belmont history, an unanimous Belmont Planning Board voted early today, Aug. 10, to replace the town's chief planner, Jay Szklut, as their staff. In a letter that will be written today to the Board of Selectmen and Town Administrator Tom Younger, Planning Board Chairman Sami Baghdady will say that the board "doesn't feel we can work with the Planning Coordinator and we need to find a suitable alternative." "The question was whether our staff was effective in assisting us in our objectives and goals," Baghdady told Belmont Patch after the meeting. "And we felt that was now impossible," he said. Szklut, who is Belmont's Planning and Economic Development Manager, is out on vacation today…
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Belmont Town Hall
455 Concord Ave, Belmont, MA
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The Office of Community Development
19 Moore St, Belmont, MA
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Office of the Town Administrator
455 Concord Ave, Belmont, MA
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South Pleasant Street rezoning blueprint growing personal between Board and professionals.
It was supposed to be your typical mid-summer town board meeting where housekeeping items are at the top of the agenda and the first priority is to finish the official business early so participants can enjoy the warm evening. But Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting brought a bit of the August heat inside Belmont Town Hall as a contentious altercation between Planning Board Chairman Sami Baghdady and the town's Planning and Economic Development Manager Jay Szklut revealed a growing tension over how best to move forward on the future of South Pleasant Street, the largest and most significant parcel of developable land in Belmont. In a challenge that surprised many in the tone it took, Baghdady confronted Szklut over a three-and-a-half page …
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Pleasant St & Trapelo Rd, Belmont, MA
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Pleasant St & Snake Hill Rd, Belmont, MA
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Anne Mahon
8:25 pm on Sunday, August 14, 2011
We need to be more business friendly in Belmont and this is a good start to showing we're ready to do what it takes to help increase revenue from sources other than our residents. I applaud the decision. more ›