Tuesday evening’s public hearing on the proposed new zoning for the Exit 4 interchange in Randolph was really a remarkable event, an impressive demonstration of civic cooperation and mutual respect.

No issue involving Randolph’s future is more important than the fate of the Interstate interchange. It is simply THE prime available location for several kinds of economic development, ranging from a hotel/motel to clustered housing to office parks and light manufacturing of the kind represented by ClearSource and its 110 jobs. But it is also the revered "gateway" to Randolph and Randolph Center, that marks them as rural villages within a beautiful natural environment.

It is amazing, as Pat French said Tuesday evening, that the seven-year planning process was able to find substantial agreement among these competing visions of what Exit 4 means to the town. It is gratifying that the sizeable crowd appreciated those years of hard work and that folks were respectful of all the proposals, even those they disagreed with.

Just participating in such an outstanding civic exercise was a kind of privilege.

For us, the most remarkable part of the evening was when Jesse "Sam" Sammis rose to speak.

Sammis has spent many hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase property at Exit 4, both north and south of Route 66. His holdings include what is potentially the most valuable piece of land in Randolph—the flat 15-acre parcel where the golf driving range is located.

He had hoped to develop it, or part of it, to provide retail space.

However, the planning process, as it progressed, first specified that stand-alone retail would continue to be forbidden at the Interchange, largely because it would compete with downtown. Then planners decreed that this valuable property could not be developed with buildings at all—because of its visual prominence (the same quality that made it valuable).

You might think that, after those planning decisions, Sammis would be furious with the town. And it’s true that during part of the process he made his disappointment known and continued to push hard for a more intensive use of his most valuable property.

But by the time that Tuesday’s hearing rolled around, he was philosophical, even strongly positive about the direction Randolph planning has taken.

"I did feel that the 15-acre piece should have some development, maybe on the southern half," he told the hearing.

"I didn’t win on that one. And I said I would agree to that."

Turning to the plan as a whole, with its emphasis on preserving open space, he was understanding of the Commission’s motivation: "Having open land might set us apart from other developments in the state," he reflected, before concluding that "We have the potential to do somethig very special here."

Not that Sam Sammis is being unbusiness-like. The same agreement that put part of his property off limits makes it more possible to develop some of the rest of it. Still, some businessmen are more enlightened than others in their approach to community planning, and Sammis is clearly one of the enlightened, and patient, kind.

He also spent a great deal of time working with the various committees over the past seven years. Maria Puglisi, who was part of the process, confirmed the value of that: "Sam has been wonderful throughout the process," she said.

Many at Tuesday’s hearing were equally eloquent, but few had so much at stake.

* * *

We also applaud Scott Berkey, who only recently took over the chairmanship of the Planning Commission, for his exemplary running of an important public hearing.