Six months after Birgitta Kuehn resigned from the Planning Board, the combined Select and Planning boards filled her seat Tuesday night.
They chose Joseph Higgins, a criminal defense attorney who specializes in drunk driving cases, to take a place on the five-member board until the May town election.
“We need to change the bylaws [to] encourage commercial development,” Higgins said during the meeting. “Encourage commercial development. Take the burden off residential tax base to increase or promote commercial tax base.”
For five months, it looked like Kuehn’s seat would remain empty – no one had applied for the position on the board. But following a December article in the Independent highlighting the vacancy, a surge of applications came in.
After the nine members of the combined boards interviewed nine applicants Tuesday, three candidates were nominated: Frank Mand, a journalist and environmentalist who previously had served on the Planning Board and who ran for the board again in last May’s town election; Adam Bond, an attorney, and Higgins.
Higgins received seven votes. Voting for him were Select Board chair Kevin Canty and members Charlie Bletzer and David Golden, Planning Board chair Steve Bolotin, vice chair Tim Grandy, and members Tim Bennett and Carl Donaldson.
In May, Higgins would have to run for re-election for a one-year term to finish out Kuehn’s five-year term.
The position of alternate member of the board has also been open since last summer. Only the Planning Board can vote on that position, which the board decided should be filled from among Tuesday night’s interviewees.
Bennett nominated Bond. Bolotin nominated retired architect Christopher Smith.
Bennett and Donaldson voted for Bond. Bolotin and Grandy voted for Smith.
With the vote tied at 2-2, Grandy suggested that the board wait until its Jan. 22 meeting to take another vote. By that time, Higgins will be able to provide a fifth vote to break a tie.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org.