Find Out What Danvers Select Board Candidates Say About Development, Equity and Inclusion

DANVERS, MA — The seven candidates vying for two spots on the Danvers Select Board in the upcoming annual town election delivered their thoughts on development, housing, and diversity, equity and inclusion issues facing the town during a candidates' forum two weeks before the May 6 election.

Incumbent and current Select Board Chair Daniel Bennett, former Select Board member Gardner
Trask, and challengers Michael Baxter, Sandy Franceschini, Kevin Berich, Natalie Luca Fiore and Mark Lentine are the candidates in the crowded field.

Candidates shared their thoughts on development — or overdevelopment in the town, in several cases — as well as how to help create more housing without increasing density, and what steps, if any, the town needs to take to meet its DEI challenges.

"The most important issue is development," Bennett said. "We need to have a better plan to have development along Endicott Street, Route 114, and Route 1 corridor rather than in our neighborhoods."

Lentine was one of multiple candidates to criticize the scope and impact of the new Maple Square development.

"We can no longer allow any Maple Squares in the town of Danvers," said Lentine, adding accountability, financial responsibility and employee retention as other important issues facing the town.

Trask cited his previous experience on town boards, commissions and the Select Board as strengths as he seeks to return to the Board, saying that communication, engagement, stability and a return to civility will be important to helping the town navigate the challenges ahead of it.

"We need to talk to each other respectfully and understand there is more than one side to every issue," he said. "Good people can disagree without being disagreeable. I think we have wavered away from that as of late."

Franceshini advocated for "Select Board office hours" to increase communication, as well as bringing in more businesses downtown while being wary of overdevelopment.

"We are building way too much right now," she said. "My concern is our resources. We don't have enough to serve the demographic we have now. To bring in more people, we are going to need to hire more police officers, more firefighters, more EMTs, and we're going to need more equipment as well."

Berich said development is the most frequent issue that he hears from speaking to residents. He said that while he agrees with the need to comply with state law when it comes to the MBTA Communities Act, which requires increased zoning for "by right" multi-family housing development for cities and towns within the MBTA coverage zone to receive many state grants and funding, "it is our zoning and we can, and should, make it work for us."

"I am particularly concerned in our neighborhoods where we see three- and four-unit buildings being shoed into a lot," Berich said. "We should start with dimensional requirements to make sure the appropriate-sized building is going into the appropriate-sized lot in the appropriate-sized neighborhood."

Fiore said revitalizing the downtown by making it easier for businesses to navigate the town hall permit process would be among her primary focuses on the Board, with the need to have "measured growth without overtaxing our resources."

"When I first moved here to Danvers, we had a lot of stores to shop at downtown," she said. "Now I find myself leaving town to go shop at small businesses elsewhere. ... Having a vibrant, thriving downtown is what most residents ultimately want."

Baxter said the Select Board must hold the next town manager accountable, and that he is a proponent of community engagement and small businesses.

"I really want to create a thriving local economy by supporting and fostering new economic opportunities in this town," he said.

On the question of equity and inclusiveness, the candidates all said they support a town that promotes DEI principles, but differed somewhat on whether Danvers currently has a problem in those areas beyond a handful of high-profile incidents.

"To paint the picture overall that Danvers is not an inclusive town is worrisome to me," Fiore said before adding, "I feel that Danvers does not have an inclusivity problem overall, and I would love for that narrative not to be."

Baxter said he would support efforts to increase the town's human rights and inclusion work, as well as promote events that support the diversity already present in the community.

"We also need to listen," he said. "That means more open forums and regular dialogue with the underrepresented groups to ensure every resident has a safe, comfortable seat at our table."

Bennett said the town is an inclusive town and a welcoming community, and supported hiring a community engagement director.

"We do a good job of it," he said.

Lentine said equity and inclusion are more societal issues than Danvers-centered issues and that he believes the town is "very welcoming."

"Ultimately, everybody in Danvers, regardless of political party, religion, or sexual preference, it really doesn't matter," he said. "What matters is that everybody in Danvers should be treated with dignity and respect."

Trask said that a lot of work needs to be done on diversity and equity in the town.

"Most of us are sitting here from a viewpoint of privilege," he said. "We have to recognize that not all of our citizens have those privileges and the equal rights that we enjoy."

Franceshini said having a gay brother makes the issue one "that really hits home to me."

"In school, in the first grade, they have what's called a Heritage Day," she said. "I think that's a great way for kids to learn about other ethnicities. You had to pick a favorite food, a favorite activity that you did as a family, and I thought that was a great way to open the door to speak to that."

Berich said he believes that Danvers is an inclusive and welcoming community, and that while the attack on a special needs resident near Plains Park this past fall was "absolutely terrible," the town's collective response was a sign of its strength.

"I have never been more proud of my community in some ways for the way it rallied around him," he said. "For the way they attended meetings, and wanted answers, and wanted action. When something bad happens, people here step up."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)