Williamstown Planning Board Approves Bylaw Changes
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board voted Monday to recommend a handful of zoning bylaw changes, including allowing residential housing on the first floor on Water Street."Right now residential usage are not permitted anywhere in the village business district on the ground floor," Planning Board member Anne McCallum said. "We're going to allow some residential usages in some buildings on Water Street."
"We would not be allowing multi-family dwelling and we would not be allowing single-family dwellings at this point," McCallum said. "That may come in another year but right now this is an incremental approach."
The board also approved additional stormwater runoff approval for development activity that requires more than 50 cubic yards of fill or the removal of more than 10,000 square-feet of vegetative cover. A stormwater plan must be presented to the Planning Board if a project surpasses one of those criteria.
"This bylaw is being proposed in response to any number of complaints we heard around town about a property owner doing something on their land – either grading or building houses or expanding things that have caused downstream flooding," Planning Board member Andrew Hogeland said. "The main intent of this bylaw is to add some planning at the front of any one of these projects in order to make sure there is no downstream damage done."
Exemptions from the bylaw include the town doing work on its own property, activities being reviewed by the Conservation Commission, normal maintenance and improvement of land in agricultural use, maintenance of existing landscaping, constructing fences or utilities that do not alter drainage patterns or logging, and forestry undertaken under an approved forest management plan.
"The goal was not to have this bylaw apply to these routine things that are addressed in some other fashion," Hogeland said.
The board is also recommending shifting more power to the Zoning Board of Appeals when dealing with some special permits. A number of bylaw usages that previously required special permits from the Planning Board will now be directed to the ZBA. A few minor special permits will now fall under the jurisdiction of the ZBA while the Planning Board will still be responsible for major permits.
"The expertise and experience of dealing with special permits resides with the zoning board because they see a lot more of it than we do," Planning Board member Chris Winters said. "The Planning Board retains special permit authority over the more substantial special permit-type stuff."
The full draft of the articles is available below.
Williamstown Proposed Bylaw Changes
