Special Meeting To Review Zoning Amendments

Selectmen Hold Special Meeting To Review Zoning Amendments

CHATHAM --- A complex set of zoning bylaw amendments designed to encourage affordable housing construction have undergone yet another revision, prompting the planning board to request a special session with the board of selectmen.

Selectmen were slated to review the amendments last Tuesday, after which the board was to vote on inclusion of the measures on the May annual town meeting warrant as well as whether or not to support them. But the amendments were still being tweaked, prompting Planning Board Chairman Leonard Sussman to request postponement of the review.

The planning board held two public hearings on the measures, the last a marathon session of more than four hours. Board members wanted an additional session to review final language changes and discuss the amendments among themselves before going before selectmen, said Sussman. That meeting was scheduled for Tuesday.

Selectmen were slated to meet Wednesday (March 26) at 4 p.m. to discuss the zoning amendments.

Among the changes proposed by the amendments are a loosening of restrictions on affordable accessory apartments in single-family dwellings; an amnesty program allowing currently illegal apartments to be converted to affordable units; an increase from 10 to 20 percent in the required amount of affordable units in new developments; and a provision to convert guest units to affordable housing.

One change the planning board was slated to review on Tuesday involved the provision for a density bonus. Sussman said he anticipates “questions from both sides” on the issue. Density bonuses and mandatory inclusionary provisions make more sense when applied to large-scale developments, said Sussman, an architect. In Chatham, “there isn’t a lot of developable land.” He sees density bonuses as a distraction from other bylaw changes that may provide more affordable units, such as allowing accessory apartments and the illegal apartment amnesty.

“That’s what is going to help us get out from the 40B regulation,” he said. Communities where 10 percent or more of housing units are affordable are not subject the state’s Chapter 40B comprehensive permit law, which allows developers to waive many local regulations if at least 25 percent of a development’s units are affordable. Only about 4 percent of Chatham’s housing stock is classified as affordable.

The change in the density bonus section is more restrictive than original proposed, and involves a formula to determine how many additional units the planning board could allow. “It allows us to know in advance what the maximum impact might be in terms of density,” Sussman said.

The public hearings produced a “full and fair discussion” of the proposed amendments, he said. “I think we came up with a set of bylaws that may not be to everyone’s 100 percent satisfaction, [but] which basically advances the bylaw over today’s totally ineffectual bylaw.”

Initially the planning board expected to have zoning amendments ready for the May town meeting that included both changes to the affordable housing provisions and the critical sections of the bylaw that deal with nonconforming uses and structures. Due to the complexity of the nonconforming sections, the board opted to go forward now with the affordable housing amendments, and to continue working on the other amendments with an eye toward a fall special town meeting.

These are the first substantive bylaw changes brought forward since the board began working on revising the zoning bylaw, which hasn’t been significantly altered in 20 years. Various attempts to revise the entire document, beginning with hiring a consultant a half dozen years ago, have fallen flat, leading the board to decide to tackle the rewrite a section at a time.

Selectmen called Wednesday’s special meeting because they are under a deadline to have the final warrant to the printer by April 1, said Chairman David Whitcomb. Since it is the only topic on the agenda, he expects the bylaw amendments will receive a full and detailed discussion. The board will likely vote to put the amendments on the warrant, and he hoped a vote would also be taken on whether or not to support the measures.

“That could be wishful thinking,” he commented.

It’s important, however, to have as much detail about the zoning amendments in the warrant as possible, he added, so voters can come to town meeting informed.

“Something this important, we wanted to get it in the printed warrant,” he said. The warrant’s April 1 deadline is necessary so that the document can be mailed to voters at least two weeks prior to the May 12 town meeting, as required by the town’s charter.

3/27/08