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Monterey Planning Board and ZBA joint meeting- 10/4/2011
Members present: Maggie Leonard; Chair, Bridget Krans, Alan Solomon, Larry Klein, Stephen Enoch, Barry Karson
ZBA present: Fred Chapman( left at 8:40), Bob Lazarrini, Stan Ross, John Leven, Cynthia Weber
Mark Bobrowski the consultant hired by the town was present to discuss the reorganization of the bylaw.
- Meeting to order: 7:20. Mr. Bobrowski had not arrived as of yet.
- Table of use regulations: Alan pointed out that the board of appeals would be the permit granting authority and felt that this should be put in. Bob Lazzarini pointed out that Mr. Bobrowski was proposing that we have the Planning board as well be the permit granting authority. Also the Select board. Those are the three that are allowed by law. Stephen felt that for the purpose of this round we should identify the one group that would be the authority. The group agreed to have the ZBA named as the number one and eliminate the other two. Mr. Bobrowski strongly felt that the Planning Board should be involved in granting permits depending on the nature of the permit being asked for. Fred Chapman really felt that no changes should be made now. Reorganization should be the main goal.
- Section 1: Mr. Bobrowski added what he calls the “handshake of the bylaw”. He added in the authority in the zoning act as well as the home rule movement. This allows towns to be very flexible. Section added on non-conformities. It repeats the statute. Section 11 which was named validity in our current bylaw was put in section 1 and named severability.
- Districts section 2: Why do we need all of the information describing the districts when we have a map? Mr. Bobrowski suggests that we put the map in and take out the narrative. Fred Chapman wanted to know how someone would know looking at the map what district your house was in. Mr. Bobrowski stated that it would be marked off. Mr. Lazzarini stated that we could put in lot numbers and boundaries. Maggie will get in touch with Berkshire Regional Planning to make a color coded map of the districts with lot lines for the bylaws. Some items in the regulations have been moved to later in the bylaw.
- Accessory uses: The general rule for accessory uses was added into the bylaw. Customary or home occupation. Adult daycare was added. Intensive or non-intensive was added.
- Use table: Renting of rooms and furnishing of board was discussed.
- Dimensional requirements: Nothing has changed
- Non-conforming uses and structures: Mr. Bobrowski tried to merge his and ours. There was a long discussion last time and the group is still not in total agreement.
- Section 5: The current bylaw statements on unsafe buildings/structures were kept. Fred Chapman felt that this was too vague. It was agreed that the building commissioner and the board of health were able to make the ruling if a structure should be declared unsafe. The basic information on everything except houses was cleaned up and wording from the statute was used. The board wanted something about what the structures and houses were. Extending non-conformities was under discussion for structures that are not houses. The majority felt that increasing the non-conformity needed a variance. Increasing non conformity for houses and two family houses; Mr. Bobrowski questions our current bylaw that states that structures cannot increase by more than 25%. Members of the group were in
disagreement as to whether this should change or not.
- Abandonment or non-use: The state guidelines were added in. Should re-establishment of a non-conforming structure/lot be allowed? The board agreed that we should allow re-establishment otherwise if the General store is not used in two years then no uses would be allowed. Some members of the group disagreed as to what a catastrophic event was. John Levin wanted to add in a time line for when and how long reconstruction should take.
- Section 6: Parking and signs; There are only two rules for parking and Mr. Bobrowski felt that there should be a buffer between residential and non-residential areas. Mr. Bobrowski felt that the planning board should be the sign granting authority as well as the sign special permit and perform sight plan reviews.
- Section 7: This is the common driveway bylaw and nothing was changed. The easement agreement for the common driveway needs to be approved by the Planning Board. This cannot be done through a form A. Under what authority is the planning board acting? This brings up the point of site plan review again as well as multifamily dwellings. Many issues were brought up in section 7 that brought up the point of site plan review. Maggie and Bob felt that maybe a site plan review could be put in place that were only for the issues brought up in section 7. This would not include single family homes. Mr. Bobrowski will give the group a bare bones site plan requirement and we will work on adding it in. Mr. Bobrowski wondered why we regulate septic systems in our bylaws. It is a board of health issue. It
was agreed by the board that it was meant to be informative and should be left in.
- B&Bs: Mr.Bobrowski left the board with the bylaw for B&Bs from Lenox. The board will discuss it.
- Wind and Solar Energy: Larry felt that Monterey is not a good candidate for windmills so why have the bylaw. If you do not have a bylaw than by default it is not permitted. It was agreed that a solar bylaw made more sense.
- Mr. Bobrwoski will put draft #2 together. He suggests that we conduct a public work shop and then a public hearing. November 15th was decided on for the public workshop. Maggie will be unavailable from October 19th- November 8th.
- Adjourned: 10:00 PM.
Submitted by,
Bridget Krans
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