Planning Board candidate profile: Margaret Sweet

Mar 25, 2019

Margaret Sweet hopes her background in real estate will give her the leg up in serving on the Planning Board.

The realtor by trade has lived in Dartmouth nearly her whole adult life, having moved to town from New Bedford where she grew up in the early 1970s. She has been in the real estate business since 1978, and has had her own business since the early 1980s.

Although she’s served on several committees and the Zoning Board of Appeals for three terms, she entered the race to bring her experience in real estate to the Planning Board.

Having a background in both commercial and residential real estate, Sweet said she is up to date in many developments in the industry, including state-level laws she is concerned could have negative effects in Dartmouth. She listed proposed state laws to make it easier for dense zoning in small towns, and state attempts at making it easier for large developments to get past Town Meetings as concerns.

“I’m attuned to the issues facing development,” Sweet said. “I think that is going to help me if I am elected.”

Other priorities if she is elected include helping seniors stay in their homes, and ensuring Dartmouth is a fair place for commercial developers to do business in. Sweet said she’s spoken to residents and commercial developers about their needs.

“I’d like to be very unbiased with anyone who comes before us,” Sweet said. “I think people need to, on every item, vote for what’s right for the town.”

If elected, she also hopes to keep Dartmouth a friendly place for commercial development. She noted she hears from many commercial property developers that Dartmouth is a good place to do business in.

“A lot of the developers that I deal with like to come to Dartmouth because the rules are consistently the same for everyone,” Sweet said. “Some towns and other cities are not that way, and [developers] have problems.”

In addition to real estate, Sweet also worked for the Red Cross as a liaison for military families.

When she’s not at work, she enjoys walking her two dogs on trails along the Slocum River, and visits the beach at Demarest Lloyd State Park.