Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Planning Board Zoning Articles

The Planning Board is proposing five zoning articles for consideration at the 2008 Annual Town Meeting. Two are essentially housekeeping measures. One clarifies how the front setback is measured (from front line, not road pavement) and the other merges the M and EA multifamily districts. Currently, the M district has a set of requirements and then the EA district says M applies except for the following differences. It makes it difficult to follow because one has to flip back and forth in the Zoning Bylaw to read the provisions of the EA district. Furthermore, there is no land currently zoned as M and everything that can be done under M can be done under EA as well. This article helps simplify our bylaw while making no substantive change.

There are three substantive articles. One would create a Design Review Committee to make recommendations about design (including buildings, signs, lighting, landscaping, etc.) to the Planning Board for projects subject to site plan review or a special permit. It does not affect single family homes. Another article would allow multidwellings as part of a Planned Unit Development with certain restrictions (no more than 50% of the square footage could be residential, at least 10% of units must be affordable and there could be no more than 4 units per acre). The fifth article would amend the maximum allowable size for a retail outlet (currently 2500 square feet, excluding any kitchen or storage space) by allowing a single outlet to be up to 7500 square feet (and all others would still have to comply with the 2500 square foot maximum).

The text of these articles can be seen on the Planning Board web site.