Town of Lenox
Planning Board
December 13, 2016
Landuse Meeting Room
Members present: Vice Chair Pam Kueber, (PK); Tom Delasco, (TD); Kate McNulty-Vaughan, (KMV); Deborah Rimmler, (DR);
Absent without notification: Chair Kameron Spaulding, KS
Staff present: Gwen Miller, Land Use Director/Town Planner, (GM); Peggy Ammendola, Land Use Clerk, (PA)
Documents Available for This Meeting
- 2017 Planning Board Schedule
- November 15, 2016 minutes
- Agenda
- Parking Design Standards
- Proposed Bylaw Amendments-Parking
The Board decided that in order to be more efficient, it would be best to form sub-committees to work outside of the regular Board meetings on the different projects and then present their proposal to the full Board.
Zoning Bylaw Amendments-Parking- The Planning Board went through each section of the Parking Design Standards handout and talked about the purpose and implications of each section. Through consensus they agreed to have PK and DR continue working on some of the items needing further study, and they would come back to the group with their findings.
Debrief of Lenox Dale Walking Tour-Work Plan: It was felt that the walking tour of Lenox Dale was beneficial and the Board should develop a plan to move forward in creating a new district and to correct zoning discrepancies. Discussed were new uses which would draw people to the area.
Funding for improvements to the neighborhood should be explored. This could be grants, low interest loans, USDA developmental loans or funds that may be available from Village Improvement or Community Preservation.
It was agreed by consensus that KMV and TD will be the subcommittee to begin to outline a time line for completing the rezoning process.
Planning Board Priorities Going Forward-The Planning Board selected amendments to the Parking bylaw as their #1 priority; followed by the creation of a unique Lenox Dale zoning district and fixing some of the zoning boundary discrepancies in the neighborhood.
They elected to appoint two sub committees: one for Parking, composed of DR and PK and one for Lenox Dale, composed of TD and KMV.
GM mentioned that Jim Biancolo is helping with some of the remaining “clean-up” zoning work, such as removing regulations from the Definitions section and placing them in pertinent ZBL sections and the cleaning up of Table of Dimensional Requirements by removing footnotes and placing them in pertinent sections of the Bylaw. He will come in and present some of this work at a future meeting.
Medicinal & Recreational Marijuana Zoning-GM said the Town Manager had requested the Planning Board to develop local guidelines for the siting of marijuana dispensaries in light of the new general law adopted in the November2016 election which allows for the sale of recreational marijuana. GM also noted the Town does not currently have a medicinal marijuana bylaw on the books.
Pam suggested that members attend a forum at BRPC on January 26th to learn more about the zoning implications of this new law, and then the PB can address it after becoming more informed.
Approval of Minutes (November 15) PK made a motion to approve the minutes as amended and KMV seconded the motion. The Board voted to approve 3-0. (DR left the meeting at 7:30 PM and was not present when the minutes were reviewed and approved.)
Correspondence-Correspondence was not read.
The Board meeting for December 27th was cancelled. The next meeting will be January 10, 2017.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:25 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Peggy Ammendola
Town of Lenox
Planning Board
December 13, 2016
Landuse Meeting Room
Members present: Vice Chair Pam Kueber, (PK); Tom Delasco, (TD); Kate McNulty-Vaughan, (KMV); Deborah Rimmler, (DR);
Absent without notification: Chair Kameron Spaulding, KS
Staff present: Gwen Miller, Land Use Director/Town Planner, (GM); Peggy Ammendola, Land Use Clerk, (PA)
Documents Available for This Meeting
- 2017 Planning Board Schedule
- November 15, 2016 minutes
- Agenda
- Parking Design Standards
- Proposed Bylaw Amendments-Parking
The Board decided that in order to be more efficient, it would be best to form sub-committees to work outside of the regular Board meetings on the different projects and then present their proposal to the full Board.
Zoning Bylaw Amendments-Parking- The Planning Board went through each section of the Parking Design Standards handout and talked about the purpose and implications of each section. Through consensus they agreed to have PK and DR continue working on some of the items needing further study, and they would come back to the group with their findings.
Debrief of Lenox Dale Walking Tour-Work Plan: It was felt that the walking tour of Lenox Dale was beneficial and the Board should develop a plan to move forward in creating a new district and to correct zoning discrepancies. Discussed were new uses which would draw people to the area.
Funding for improvements to the neighborhood should be explored. This could be grants, low interest loans, USDA developmental loans or funds that may be available from Village Improvement or Community Preservation.
It was agreed by consensus that KMV and TD will be the subcommittee to begin to outline a time line for completing the rezoning process.
Planning Board Priorities Going Forward-The Planning Board selected amendments to the Parking bylaw as their #1 priority; followed by the creation of a unique Lenox Dale zoning district and fixing some of the zoning boundary discrepancies in the neighborhood.
They elected to appoint two sub committees: one for Parking, composed of DR and PK and one for Lenox Dale, composed of TD and KMV.
GM mentioned that Jim Biancolo is helping with some of the remaining “clean-up” zoning work, such as removing regulations from the Definitions section and placing them in pertinent ZBL sections and the cleaning up of Table of Dimensional Requirements by removing footnotes and placing them in pertinent sections of the Bylaw. He will come in and present some of this work at a future meeting.
Medicinal & Recreational Marijuana Zoning-GM said the Town Manager had requested the Planning Board to develop local guidelines for the siting of marijuana dispensaries in light of the new general law adopted in the November2016 election which allows for the sale of recreational marijuana. GM also noted the Town does not currently have a medicinal marijuana bylaw on the books.
Pam suggested that members attend a forum at BRPC on January 26th to learn more about the zoning implications of this new law, and then the PB can address it after becoming more informed.
Approval of Minutes (November 15) PK made a motion to approve the minutes as amended and KMV seconded the motion. The Board voted to approve 3-0. (DR left the meeting at 7:30 PM and was not present when the minutes were reviewed and approved.)
Correspondence-Correspondence was not read.
The Board meeting for December 27th was cancelled. The next meeting will be January 10, 2017.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:25 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Peggy Ammendola
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