Williamstown Church Hosts Post-Election Meeting November 5

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass - The First Congregational Church, Williamstown, is sponsoring a post-election meeting on Wednesday, November 5th, from 7-8:30 p.m. in the church sanctuary. The broad purpose of the meeting is to encourage discussion of how this historic Presidential election will influence people's ongoing lives.

Specifically, participants will be considering what values the election reflects and refutes for each of them personally and how they might live their lives so as to reinforce the values they associate with being American – and being good people.

While the discussion will undoubtedly be lively and engaging, the ultimate purpose of this meeting is to provide time and space for individuals to contemplate ways to make their own values concrete in their everyday actions and to get continuing support in the difficult work of living their values boldly.

The meeting will be moderated by Stewart Burns, Director of the Center for Community Engagement at Williams College. It is free and open to the public. People of all political persuasions are welcome. Childcare will be provided at the church.

The First Congregational Church is located at 906 Main Street (Rt. 2) in Williamstown, and is fully handicap accessible. For more information call 413-458-4273 or e-mail office@firstchurchwilliamstown.org
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Williamstown Planning Board Narrowing in on Subdivision Bylaw Changes

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board late last month discussed specific features of what it plans to pass as a new subdivision control bylaw this year.
 
The board long has discussed the complex set of regulations as being out of date and cumbersome to both potential developers and the board itself, which has needed to hear requests for waivers of outdated rules for the handful of residential subdivisions that have been proposed in town in recent years.
 
This spring, the town engaged consultants from Northampton's Dodson and Flinker Landscape Architecture and Planning to go through the existing bylaw, compare it to more contemporary regulations in other communities and help craft a revised bylaw.
 
Unlike the zoning bylaw, where amendments require approval of town meeting, the subdivision control bylaw is a creation of the Planning Board, which can make changes on its own after a public hearing process it hopes to complete this year.
 
At a special Planning Board meeting on May 26, Dillon Sussman of Dodson and Flinker and his colleagues walked the board through a dozen different decision points that the board must resolve — either by leaving the bylaw as is or making a change — and offered suggestions based on best practices.
 
All of the issues are technical and ranged from the fundamental, like how the bylaw will define types of subdivisions, to the highly specific, like what turning radii will be required in new streets that are constructed to serve planned developments.
 
One example of a topic that came up in the recent approval of a four-home subdivision off Summer Street is stormwater management.
 
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