[Massplanners] Zoning Bylaw Rewrite?

[Katrina O'leary]

Chris,
I’m in a similar position right now.  However, we had a citizen petition that outlined a process of appointing a zoning bylaw review committee (with a specific make-up of residents) to perform a “review” of our zoning bylaws back in 2018.  Because the petition wording was flawed, it has taken awhile to put the bylaw review committee together and for them to perform the actions specified in the petition.    Almost everyone agreed the citizen petition language was flawed to begin with, so this committee was reluctant to really go deep with their review.  They ended up asking our Town Counsel do a “zoning audit” of our bylaw to point out the areas that could be improved and also list the items that should be included.  Once this is completed, that will take care of the items you have listed under “a”:
a) Did you conduct a complete rewrite? What were the components? Structure and organization, legal review, adding user-friendly elements?

Once the audit is completed, the Town will most likely direct their existing “Bylaw Review Committee” to undertake a comprehensive zoning bylaw review.  This is a committee appointed by the Board of Selectmen and includes 5 residents and the Town Clerk and Building Commissioner as ex-officio members (the last time they were called into action was before Middleton had a Town Planner – but I think it’s more important to have the Building Commissioner there because he will be the one enforcing whatever they decide upon).  At some point, the Planning Board and I will be asked to review whatever they come up.  At this point I hope they hire a consultant to guide them through the process.  We do have $50K set aside for this, but I’m sure it will cost more than that.

As for adding innovative zoning tools – I’m hopeful some will be considered but the size of the staff enforcing and administering our zoning bylaw is small and  we need to keep it manageable.  I have also run into problems at Town Meeting when trying to introduce more complex zoning tools (a zoning amendment that would limit irregular lot shapes) and the residents didn’t want it because they couldn’t understand it.

I’ll be interested to see what kind of feedback you receive on your questions.

Katrina O'Leary, AICP
Middleton Town Planner
195 North Main Street     Middleton, MA   01949     PH: (978)777-8917
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From: MassPlanners <massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org> On Behalf Of Christopher Ryan
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2021 3:17 PM
To: massplanners at masscptc.org
Subject: [Massplanners] Zoning Bylaw Rewrite?

Hi all

I need to be thinking about how we're going to approach the long overdue comprehensive rewrite of our zoning bylaws and had a few questions for the water cooler.

First, those who have addressed a dated and flawed bylaw, what has your approach been?

a) Did you conduct a complete rewrite? What were the components? Structure and organization, legal review, adding user-friendly elements?

b) If not comprehensive, what were the elements and issues that you focused on?

c) Did you introduce innovative methodologies and types? Form-based? Hybrid? Any elements of performance zoning?

d) How did you fund it and what was the cost?

e) What type of consulting team did you use? Multidisciplinary? Did you do some of it in-house?

f) Did you have a committee? How was it composed?

g) What was the biggest challenge?

So, if you have recently done work on your bylaw, let me know what you did...or even if you are preparing for it or thinking about it.

Thanks a ton in advance...

Chris R.

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Christopher J. Ryan, AICP
Director of Community and Economic Development
Town of Harvard, MA
13 Ayer Road
Harvard, MA  01451
Phone: 978.456.4100 x.323
Email: cryan at harvard.ma.us<mailto:cryan at harvard.ma.us>
Web: http://www.harvard.ma.us
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