<div dir="ltr">Erika and All,<div><br></div><div>Before I retired from the Town of Dracut, we had just finished the master plan and were looking forward to starting to make significant amendments (ie. an overhaul) to the Dracut Zoning Bylaw. I received estimates from $75k to $125k for revamping the zoning. A lot of Dracut's zoning bylaw was that it was not well organized and specifically did not comply with MGL, particularly 40A, Section 3. We talked about amending in phases vs. the whole bylaw at once, as the latter can be very controversial. If changes are made to use and density and dimensional tables, in particular, it can get very contentious on the town meeting floor. One of the keys is to have public sessions to educate the public as much as possible. Yes, the public likely will be a minimal crew, but you can bet the development community will be there!</div><div><br></div><div>The other issue we discussed is having a team approach to overhauling the zoning. Planners to work on the text, attorneys to work on the legal end and specialists to address specific areas of the zoning bylaw. In Dracut we discussed having our transportation consultant advise on the parking bylaw and link the parking bylaw to the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) or another professional group. The parking bylaw made little sense to any of us in town hall. With more and more drive-thrus, there is less need for parking spaces. Next time you drive by a Dunkin' Donuts, you'll see the point! Also, with more and more housing within a walk to a transit station, with Uber available and other transportation options, parking space requirements have been eliminated in some communities. I know when I worked in Winchester, which has two train stations within an easy walk to downtown, we were considering eliminating the two space requirement for residential uses. Clearly there needs to be a clause in the parking requirements that addresses the location and proximity to public transit.</div><div><br></div><div>Sign bylaws have always been a headache and some businesses are at the mercy of their landlords, who want to give more benefit (and bigger signs) to their biggest tenants. Again, a traffic consultant may be helpful as there are studies on sign size and travel speeds and what one can actually read traveling at 60+ MPH. The goal is to be fair and reasonable in the options for signs, while not impeding the visibility to the road.</div><div><br></div><div>Erica, best wishes in getting Billerica's bylaw funded, finding several good consultants and working with the community to getting the bylaw amended. </div><div><br></div><div>Hope this information has been helpful.</div><div><br></div><div>Betsy Ware</div><div>Planning Consultant</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Aug 9, 2022 at 10:32 AM Erika Jerram via MassPlanners <<a href="mailto:massplanners@masscptc.org">massplanners@masscptc.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<p class="MsoNormal">Hi all – I was wondering if anyone could share RFPs and or order of magnitude cost information for a consultant to do a complete zoning overhaul. Our zoning is outdated and needs a thorough review.
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<p class="MsoNormal">Thank you in advance for your thoughts.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">E<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(44,68,28)">Erika Oliver Jerram </span><span style="color:rgb(44,68,28)">|
</span><span style="color:rgb(44,68,28)">AICP<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(44,68,28)">Director of Planning and Community Development<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(44,68,28)">Town of Billerica<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(44,68,28)">Office: 978.671.0962<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(44,68,28)">Cell: 781.879.8026<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.town.billerica.ma.us/" target="_blank">www.town.billerica.ma.us</a>
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