[Massplanners] Planning Board "determination" and decision

[Jeff Lacy]

Without having reviewed your zoning bylaw, I will offer this. Be aware that if this advisory process is NOT a special permit (and thus not governed by 40A:9), it could be a home rule aspect to your zoning bylaw not unlike site plan review. Here the town is free to lay out various zoning processes so long as they are: 1) constitutional; and 2) not contradicted by the state’s zoning act.

Jeff Lacy
Rural Planning Associates 
(413) 230-9693

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 18, 2022, at 10:58 PM, Daniel Fortier via MassPlanners <massplanners at masscptc.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> No, not at all. No informal meetings even, everything should be through proper notice. 
> 
> Dan Fortier 
> Retired 
> Interim Dennis Town Planner 
> 
>> On Fri, Nov 18, 2022, 10:53 PM robert leavens via MassPlanners <massplanners at masscptc.org> wrote:
>> A late Friday question.............
>> 
>> I recently started working as interim town planner for a small town north of Boston.
>> I was recently contacted by an architect who wanted to go to the Planning Board for an "advisory determination" for a project within the water supply district.  There is a provision that the impervious surface of a lot has to be lower than 15%.  While the bylaw is oddly worded, this "advisory determination" of the Planning Board involves attending a Planning Board meeting, having the Planning Board review the plans, have someone else review the drainage calculations and then a "decision" would be issued and filed with the town clerk.  No notice to abutters and the architect wanted to get on the next agenda, which is 12 days away.
>> 
>> I've been in this profession for over 30 years, with work mainly in Massachusetts and I have some concerns about this process.  I don't believe that the Planning Board can make an "advisory determination" and then issue a decision that gets filed with the Town Clerk without due notice and a public hearing.  The language throughout the bylaw implies special permit but that is not how it has been interpreted in the past years.
>> 
>> Do any of your Planning Boards issue "advisory determinations", with no public hearing or abutters notice, with an end result of a written decision that get filed with the Town Clerk?
>> 
>> Thanks for any insights I may have missed,
>> 
>> Betsy Ware
>> Interim Town Planner
>> Town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA.
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