I went to a Planning Board meeting Thursday night.

Now that surely isn’t groundbreaking news. I’ve been to many planning and zoning board meetings and I know what to expect. But this one was different and offered insight to a different part of the country and how remarkably similar our concerns are.

This was a meeting of the Springfield planning board in upstate New York.

I’ve written about this town before. It’s small by Rhode Island standards. A former elementary school that I actually attended for a brief time when staying with my grandmother now serves as the town center, library, and recreation center. Farming is the major local industry, with a smattering of tourism dollars flowing into the economy as a result of Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame, which is about nine miles down Route 80. The area also has the Glimmerglass Opera, a summer opera, galleries and the Farmer’s Museum with its amazing collection of farm equipment – that may not sound exciting, but it’s worth a look – and the Cardiff Giant. The giant turned out to be a hoax, which makes it and the story all the more intriguing.

Not much has changed in all the years I’ve been going there, so on a two-day visit last week I was surprised to learn that the board would be hearing a “major” application that night.

In the last decade, two proposals united the town like no others. One was Madison Square Garden’s proposal to buy a 90-acre farm on Route 20 and convert it into a festival ground for outdoor concerts. It would have brought thousands of people into the community, surely taxing what resources are available, but at the same lining a lot of pockets.

I was alerted to the proposal when I questioned the appearance of “No MSG” signs along the highway and on people’s front lawns. Factiously, I asked if this was a natural food statement and whether residents were protesting the use of MSG in cooking.

When I was clued in to what it was all about, I figured the open field on Route 20, which is about three miles from the family place, would be transformed into a throbbing mass of partially clothed bodies at least several times a year. What could Springfield do to stand up to the big bucks of New York promoters?

It turned out that the economy and calmer heads were on the town’s side. Developers backed off as they met resistance and their prospect of making big bucks and the stock market plummeted.

Then there was the matter of fracking. This section of New York sits on Marcellus shale, which has become a rich source of natural gas in Pennsylvania. Extracting the gas requires a form of drilling called fracking, in which water and chemicals are introduced into the well under pressure. There are horror stories – and the videos to support it – of natural gas coming out of home faucets fed by wells and the chemical polluting ground waters. While drilling would have brought riches to some, it was feared fracking would have contaminated water sources, including those for New York City. Wisely, the governor put a moratorium on fracking and the legislature eventually banned it.

There was nothing as incendiary as fracking or MSG on the planning board docket Thursday night.

The applicant was Farm Credit East, a cooperative that assists its farming members with loans and financial matters. Farm Credit East proposes to buy a former estate that was last used for a summer camp, using about 13 acres as the site for a single-story office building to serve its members.

They had hired the only lawyer in town – imagine that, only one lawyer – to make their case.

That was a bit of an eye opener. Warwick has a bevy of lawyers who appear before the planning and zoning boards. They are the regulars. Then, once in a while, we get an “expert” from the capital city.

Then I was in for a surprise. The village doesn’t have a zoning ordinance, so you’re pretty much free to use the land the way you want. Yet, here was Farm Credit East seeking approval when they really didn’t need it. They would need to get state Department of Transportation approval for the curb cut. Approvals for the septic system and storm water management are also required.

The lone village lawyer had done his job. These issues had been addressed and working with an architect, Farm Credit East put forward a plan for a building that would fit in with the surrounding farmland and buildings.

And then came the kicker – the office would employ 50. These weren’t seasonal jobs, either. People were smiling.

The board listened. The public asked questions. It was an informal discussion of how to do things properly and what the office could mean to the future of the town. If there was a political agenda, I couldn’t find one. No one voiced any opposition.

I left thinking how we could use such civility and shared interest for the community in these parts.

I can understand why Farm Credit East wants to be there. The village stood up to MSG and fracking. Maybe if the state wasn’t so anxious for development regardless of who comes knocking and the political games that go into these decisions, the GEs of the world would be knocking on our doors.

I know where to find a lawyer.