WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board this month voted unanimously to recommend that the Select Board ask town meeting to accept the provisions of the provisions of the commonwealth's Seasonal Communities law.

 

If town meeting members agree at the May 19 annual town meeting, the town would have the ability to take steps to allow or create workforce housing, and it would give the town the ability to compete for grants to support year-round housing.

 

The tradeoff is that, under the terms of the Seasonal Communities program, Williamstown would need to enact zoning bylaws that allow the construction of residential housing on undersized lots, provided it is not used as a seasonal home or short-term rental "of less than six months." And the town would be required to enact zoning that permits so-called "tiny houses" of 400 square feet or less in floor area — again, only to be used as year-round housing.

 

The town would have two years to enact the zoning changes through subsequent town meetings while enjoying the benefits of the Seasonal Communities program from Day 1 if adopted at the May meeting.

 

The Legislature enacted the Seasonal Communities program to help communities address housing needs when those municipalities meet certain characteristics, including when "excessive disparities between the area median income and the income required to purchase the municipality's median home price," according to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (formerly the Department of Housing and Community Development).

 

The Seasonal Communities program initially was targeted at towns on Cape Cod, where the inaccessibility of workforce housing has been a concern for decades. More recently, the EOHLC has designated some towns in Berkshire County as eligible for the Seasonal Communities designation.

 

The Planning Board at its March 10 meeting voted 4-0 (with Cory Campbell absent) to recommend the Select Board agree at its Monday, March 23, meeting to put the Seasonal Communities question on the annual town meeting warrant.

 

The Select Board has listed the Seasonal Communities question on its agenda for Monday's meeting.

 

The Select Board  on Monday also will hear about the other Planning Board article slated for May's town meeting. This one would amend the town's 2019 bylaw allowing accessory dwelling units to bring the local code in compliance with the Section 8 of Chapter 150 of 2024's Act Relative to the Affordable Homes Act.

 

In order to comply with state law, the local ordinance needs to allow ADUs in all residential zoning districts, remove a requirement of one parking space per ADU and allow ADU only with approval of the Zoning Board of Appeals in some circumstances.

 

The one district where ADUs were disallowed in the 2019 bylaw is Rural Residence 1, a narrow, sparsely populated upland district.

 

 "The state requires the town to allow ADUs in all residential zones, so we [need to add] RR1 despite it being this oddity sitting in between a natural resource protection zone and a residential zone," Town Planner Andrew Groff told the Planning Board. "We still have the added protection that there's this conservation overlay [the Upland Conservation District].

 

"RR1 starts at 1,150 feet above sea level. Upland Conservation starts at 1,300 [feet]. So we're really only talking about this narrow strip partway up the ridge line."

 

While the Planning Board has the state-mandated changes before town meeting, it also includes an amendment that strikes the 2019 bylaw's requirement of a five-year waiting period for adding a third dwelling unit on a residential lot. That waiting period was added to the ‘19 law, in part, to address fears that ADUs would be built as short-term rental units; a concern that the Planning Board feels was addressed by 2025's bylaw restricting short-term rentals.

 

The Seasonal Communities program and ADU bylaw amendments may be the only Planning Board proposals before this spring's annual town meeting, but one member of the board already has begun work on developing one of the two bylaws the town would need to complete its Seasonal Communities designation.

 

Roger Lawrence at the March 10 meeting led a conversation about how the board could develop a zoning bylaw amendment to allow tiny homes in Williamstown.

 

One path would be to work off the template established by the "Cottage Court" bylaw town meeting approved in May 2024. Another would be to work off the town's mobile home park bylaw guidelines, Lawrence said. A less likely scenario would be to create a subdivision regulation that applies to tiny homes, he said.

 

The board also will need to consider whether tiny homes are developed under a rental or ownership model. The former would require a landlord; the latter, more than likely, a homeowners association to deal with things like snow removal and maintenance of common areas between the tiny homes.

 

Lawrence pointed his colleagues to one nearby example of a six-unit tiny house neighborhood just over the state line in Pownal, Vt.

 

"It's right there, and it's serving people of modest income," Lawrence said. "It's well managed. It's clearly affordable. I've talked to a couple of the residents there, and they like it. These are affordable units they can manage on their Social Security.

 

"It's a small lot. I think it's half an acre. These are rentals. These are owned by [Barber Pond Road Self Storage]. I don't know what the rental rate is. It wasn't appropriate for me to ask. … There are a number of different forms this can take, but this is a good thing for us to take a look at."