[Massplanners] Firewood Splitting Operations and Zoning

[Gary Bechtholdt]

Mark:
Northbridge has a "Forest Products Overlay District (FPOD)" -allowing for harvesting timber, packaging, shipping and warehousing of cordwood & wood products..
As an Overlay district, the Town designated property they deemed appropriate for this type of land-use.
The town has had a facility in operation for a number of years -located at the edge of town with direct access to a main highway corridor & (more or less) away from existing residential.
-Gary

R. Gary Bechtholdt II, Director
Northbridge Community Planning & Development
1679 Providence Road Northbridge, MA 01534
(508) 234-2447
https://www.northbridgemass.org/

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7 Main Street
Whitinsville, MA 01588

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From: MassPlanners <massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org> On Behalf Of Mark Archambault via MassPlanners
Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2025 3:02 PM
To: MassPlanners <massplanners at masscptc.org>
Subject: [Massplanners] Firewood Splitting Operations and Zoning

Hello everyone,

We have a guy in town (Shirley) who wants to operate a large-scale firewood splitting / processing operation.  Our Schedule of Uses doesn't have anything that quite fits this operation.  He was hoping to fall under 'Contractors Yard' which is defined in our Zoning Bylaw as "Premises used by a building contractor or subcontractor for storage of equipment and supplies, fabrication of sub-assemblies, and parking of wheeled equipment".   I think it'd be a stretch to allow his operation to fall under this definition.

He was then hoping to fall under the definition of 'agriculture' in MGL Chapter 128, section 1A, as referenced in the Bylaw, which reads:

''Farming'' or ''agriculture'' shall include farming in all of its branches and the cultivation and tillage of the soil, dairying, the production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of any agricultural, aquacultural, floricultural or horticultural commodities, the growing and harvesting of forest products upon forest land, the raising of livestock including horses, the keeping of horses as a commercial enterprise, the keeping and raising of poultry, swine, cattle and other domesticated animals used for food purposes, bees, fur-bearing animals, and any forestry or lumbering operations, performed by a farmer, who is hereby defined as one engaged in agriculture or farming as herein defined, or on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with such farming operations, including preparations for market, delivery to storage or to market or to carriers for transportation to market".

Given the growing popularity of wood stoves and considering soon to rise energy costs, I believe that it may be a good idea to allow for this type of use in one of our Industrial or Commercial zoning districts, away from residences due to the noise and dust associated with such operations.

Does anyone have a definition for such firewood / wood processing operations as well as regulations governing their location and use?  If so, I'd be grateful for any assistance and advice anyone could provide.

Sincerely,

Mark Archambault
Shirley Town Planner



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