He says, for example, the town’s two-acre minimum lot size requirement could be enforced just as effectively by the select board, since it was put in place by town ordinance and must be enforced at the town level, planning board or not.

“In this town you still have to adhere to the two-acre minimum. It’s not really necessary,” he said of the five-member planning board. He’s taking steps to get rid of it.

Thanks to his petition, which drew about 80 signatures, Grafton’s next town meeting will contain an article asking voters if they are “in favor of abolishing the board.”

Babiarz said last week he had little trouble collecting signatures from the required 10 percent of Grafton’s 700-plus registered voters.

“I got them in a week’s time,” he said. “I spent some time at the recycling center, but mostly it was just talking to people.”

Despite the petition, both Board Chairman Dave Rienzo and board member Catherine Mulholland said Babiarz was the only resident to speak in favor of the article at a recent public hearing on the matter.

“We have a number of people who profess to be libertarians. It is a libertarian principle that no one should be prevented from doing what they like,” Mulholland said. “The role of the planning board is not to sit there and be the nasty policeman, tell people what to do.”

Rather, she said, the board serves a protective role, and two of its main objectives are to keep Grafton’s master plan updated and to ensure a town capital improvement plan is in place for such purchases as town equipment and municipal building upgrades.