Zoning Recodification Neighborhood Meeting - Jan 29th, 2018

We held a zoning recodification outreach meeting at the Thompson school this evening. Attendance was pretty good -- about 18 people, and many of them were town meeting members. During the meeting, I focused more on participating than on taking notes.

Section 5.3.13(B)(1) is permissive for accessory buildings less than 80 square feet. One attendee asked ``could I build a 20' by 4' enclosed dog run right on the border of my property. Seems like the answer would be yes, both under the current ZBL and the proposed recodification.

There's some discussion about 8.1.2(B), which deals with extending a nonconforming principal use of a structure. This is in the existing bylaw.

There's discussion about 8.1.7(B). In particular, a few town meeting members were concerned that it would grant the ZBA powers they don't already have. Jenny said the ARB is looking at this. Chris Loretti talked about the possibility of a substitute motion being brought by the citizen's group.

There's a question about 5.7.2 and 5.7.3 and the inland wetland district. Cathy Garnett explains that FEMA creates the flood maps, but the conservation commission has the ability to rule on individual sites, based on things like elevation. We originally wanted to remove the flood district section from the bylaw. This wasn't as straightforward as we though it would be. The conservation commission's rules are stricter than section 5.7, but the ZBL isn't a perfect subset of the conservation commission's purview. So, we left it in. In reality, this section of the ZBL almost never gets used, because cases involving development in floodplains are almost always handled exclusively by the conservation commission, and not the ZBA.

One individual noted that there was a redline for the ARB's hearing draft; he found that document helpful and asked if it would be updated for changes made during the ARB hearings. The answer is yes, it will be updated, and should be posted on the website in a day or two.