On Feb. 4, in a vote taking place across three motions, the Sharon Planning Board rejected the proposed senior assisted living and memory care facility that would have been located on a 3.4-acre property at the intersection of Norwood Street and Edge Hill Road. The Planning Board was unable to present any special conditions that could have changed their vote. Unfortunately, the Planning Board may have missed out on the next big development in Sharon that could have given the town’s tax base some much-needed support. 

Throughout the second half of 2025, Sunrise Senior Assisted Living LLC had obtained legislative approval connecting their facility to Norwood’s sewer system and reached a developer’s agreement with the Select Board, which includes a one-time $250,000 mitigation payment to the town’s ambulance reserve funds, quarterly programming for Sharon seniors at the new facility, a 5-year commitment of $10,000 annually to the Council on Aging, and an incentive payment. Since Sept. 4, the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals held joint public hearings with the applicant, in which the Planning Board assessed the project – perhaps too harshly – against several key criteria, including social, economic, and community needs; traffic flow and safety; and fiscal impacts. 

Although the developer’s agreement seemed extremely generous, the Planning Board was hyper-critical in these joint-meetings, debating the correct interpretation of the ambiguously defined “natural coverage” in the zoning bylaw and expressing concern regarding the “short” duration of Sunrise’s five-year payment and programming plan for the Council on Aging. Even though the Planning Board may have sensed ill-intention from Sunrise, a business is not legally obligated to pay out-of-pocket for a town council outside of taxes, and expecting an unconditional yearly donation sets an unreasonable standard for future developers. 

The joint-hearings came to a close on Feb. 4 when the Planning Board voted 2-5 against the project, falling short of the four votes required for approval. When asked about the main reason behind the board’s denial motion, Robert Maidman, Chair of the Planning Board, wrote in an email to The Sharon Talon, “The Planning Board’s denial vote reflected deep concerns about the certainty of the projected tax revenues and the detrimental impacts to the neighborhood.” He declined to elaborate. 

A key point of contention in the joint-hearings that has sparked heated debate was how the increased call volume from a senior assisted living facility would impact Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Using her own analysis of CareOne – another senior living center in Sharon – Planning Board member Oanh Nguyen concluded that the EMS costs imposed on the town from an increase in call volume would likely grow faster than Sunrise’s tax revenue. She subsequently voted against the project’s approval. Meanwhile, the applicant disagreed with Nguyen’s assessment, asserting that there is a net revenue generated from ambulance calls, not a cost to the town. 

Nguyen’s analysis of CareOne, which was based on data provided by the town and online sources, has a glaring issue: the town’s ambulances don’t operate on town subsidies or negative balances, according to emergency officials who were interviewed for this article. 

In a recent email to The Talon, Nguyen wrote that she still stands by her position: “I stand by the overall interpretation of the figures, which suggest a potential financial downside risk to the Town versus a clear net benefit.”

However, it appears that she misinterpreted the difference between the amount the ambulances billed–around 3.7 million–and the amount collected as a cost to the town. In reality, between February, 2025 and February, 2026, EMS generated $1.4 million in revenue from ambulance bills rather than costing the town money.

The only costs the ambulances impose on the town are staffing and equipment, both of which would be supported by SAFER, a federal grant covering 75% of the EMS costs in the next two fiscal years and 35% in the third year. The staffing and equipment costs would further be subsidized by Sunrise’s $250,000 mitigation fee to the ambulance reserve fund. Deputy Fire Chief Dan Greenfield states that “the grant will provide us with the ability to fully cover the concurrent calls in addition to the increase in call volume.” Given that the fire department’s staffing levels are guaranteed to increase regardless of the status of Sunrise Sharon, there is no good reason to assume that the assisted living center would place a hefty strain on EMS. Fire Chief Mike Madden summarized during a phone call with The Talon: “if we do additional calls for Sunrise, the ambulance revenue will go up. What the cost per ambulance trip, though, I can’t project. But overall, Sunrise really has no impact on the fire department, and it doesn’t necessarily cost the town money.”

The Planning Board’s concern about unclear fiscal impacts was another key factor in the denial motion. Writing to The Talon, Nguyen maintained that “it would have helped if [The Planning Board] received financial information from the applicant when requested.” Maidman took especial scrutiny at the methodology behind Sunrise’s financial analysis, saying on Feb. 4, “[Sunrise’s] assumption is that the facility goes from zero capacity to full capacity in the course of a year, so that we can reap the full benefits of the revenue model. But who knows whether that will happen? How long might that take? What is the impact of that gap in terms of tax revenue to the town? We don’t know the answer to that.” Even if the facility does not fill up within the first year, the demand for a senior center in Sharon is real: since 2000, the population of Sharon above the age of 65 increased by 70% according to the Fougere Fiscal Analysis. A new Senior Assisted Living Facility would have allowed Sharon’s growing senior population an opportunity to downsize without moving away from the town, as one Sharon retiree wrote in an email to the Planning Board, “I would put our names on the wait list for this Sunrise facility.” Therefore, even if there is a delay in tax benefits, Sharon’s senior residents would still widely benefit from the facility. 

Perhaps a key contributor to the Planning Board’s wariness is its observation of CareOne’s fall in property tax revenue. The applicant’s response to the Planning Board’s concerns about a potential fall in taxes was that CareOne operated at a “lower-tier” and is not comparable to Sunrise properties. Although their answer was understandably insufficient for the board, even if property taxes were to marginally decrease over time, it is fair to assume that the development would inevitably increase the value of the underdeveloped property, which currently includes three vacant single-family homes. 

Although the Planning Board brought up concerns about a change in neighborhood composition and environmental impact, the facility would have been less than 45 feet tall, and overall, unobtrusive to the surrounding neighborhood. The proposed project would have also met Sharon’s new Specialized Stretch Code, which is a building standard that requires new construction to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, and would have been surrounded by trees, shrubs, and native plant life, further minimizing its visual and environmental footprint. 

While Sunrise’s attorney did not respond to The Talon’s inquiries, the company has several key paths forward. They can either request that the town revise the zoning rules to better define senior housing facilities and their dimensional requirements, challenge the Planning Board’s decision, or they could revise the development plans and then resubmit the special permit request. There is also a chance that Sunrise might drop the project altogether. If the latter would take place, the anticlimactic end of Sunrise Sharon, which would have strengthened the town’s tax base, brought economic development, and created a pathway for seniors to downsize, is ultimately a sad indication that inflexibility and a hard-lined stance from local government will  hinder Sharon’s progress toward fiscal strength.