2013 PB Rpt to ATM -Art 34 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Planning Board Report on Article 34 to be corrected. The proposed Bylaw attempts to strike a careful balance that, while eliminating the exempt lot category, continues to afford meaningful development potential to smaller lots, in keeping with today's practice. This may be the most difficult change to explain, but it is also of critical importance as it puts the Bylaw's treatment of non-conforming property back in line with the rest of the State—meaning interpretation and enforcement become simpler and more efficient. • Merger of Special Permits and Special Permits with Site Plan Review (for clarity) When the Town added a second and seemingly higher level of special permit that includes site plan review(the SPS)in the late 1980s and90s, it was unclear how site plan review fit into the statutory framework of the state's Zoning Act as it is not mentioned within the Act. Many communities of the Commonwealth simply did what Lexington did, and tacked it on to certain special permits. Since this time however, site plan review has been upheld as a legal exercise of a municipality's rights under Home Rule and can be exercised without the cover of a special permit. There is no such thing as a special, special permit as our Bylaw creates. Therefore the proposed Bylaw returns to a single type of special permit. The evaluation criteria for the granting of a special permit will be trimmed from an unwieldy 20+ criteria down to the more appropriate number of seven, which are still broad enough to cover the concerns someone might have about development. • Elimination of the RM District(revert to RO or RS) (internal inconsistency) The RM District was originally designed to allow multi-family developments but due to Town Meeting action in 1982 and 1984, multifamily dwellings are no longer an allowed use in the district. The Bylaw directs all multifamily development to use the RD rezoning process. Properties within the zone are presently non-conforming and will continue to be non-conforming when the district is removed from the map. The individual development properties are too dissimilar to create district standards that might leave all the current RM properties conforming but without new development potential. • Elimination of the WPD District(obsolete) The WPD District was originally designed to control development in 3 specific wetland areas, at a time when other protections were limited and untested. Since then, the adoption of local wetland protection and stormwater bylaws and more effective enforcement of the state Wetland Protection Act have made this protection unnecessary. ARTICLE DESCRIPTION The article proposes a wholesale substitution of a new bylaw for the existing Bylaw. While the entire text is to be replaced, the new text is based on the existing Bylaw, in most cases is simply reorganized. You can find a guide to what went where in Appendix The only changes to the Zoning Map are the removal of the Wetland Protection Districts, leaving the underlying zoning in place, and the elimination of the RM Districts,placing those properties into either the RS or RO Districts, in keeping with the surrounding land use. See Appendix BACKGROUND The Planning Board worked with Attorney Mark Bobrowski, author of the Handbook of Massachusetts Land Use and Planning Law. to draft the Bylaw. Changes were discussed with the Conservation Commission, the Board of Appeals and the Board of Selectmen. The planning staff March 13, 2012 3