[Massplanners] Planning Board Question

[DAVID ROBBINS]

My understanding is that to vote on a Special Permit, a member must have been present for the entirety of the public hearing (with one Mullin Rule allowed). So a new member would be ineligible to vote (but may participate in deliberation). For other applications, the requirements for voting may be different depending on the applicable rules.

It gets interesting when there is enough turnover on the Board so that there are not enough members eligible to vote to achieve the necessary supermajority to approve a Special Permit. When we face that situation, we effectively restart the public hearing process from the beginning so that all members are eligible to vote.

David Robbins
Grafton Planning Board

> On Feb 3, 2022, at 3:59 PM, Taryn Egerton via MassPlanners <massplanners at masscptc.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello—
> Are new planning board members allowed to vote on applications that were on the agenda and discussed before they became a member? We have an application that’s been going through planning board for over a year, and I wasn’t sure if our new member would be allowed to vote on that item or not. 
> 
> Thanks in advance!
>  
> Taryn Egerton
> Assistant Planner and Conservation Officer
> Town of Agawam
> 36 Main St
> Agawam, Ma 01001
>  
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