SUMMARY OF ZONING REVISIONS

Information on Workshop and Public Hearing

The Planning Board invites town officials, board members and all interested
residents to a workshop on January 28, 2010 on proposed revisions to the Zoning Bylaw
at 8:00 p.m. in the Selectmen's Hearing Room. These changes were proposed by the
Special Bylaw Review Committee, who were appointed by the Board of Selectmen with
the charge to perform a comprehensive review of the Zoning Bylaw and present a
proposed revision to Annual Town Meeting. The members of the committee are William
Limbacher, Chair; John Danehey, Donald Walter, Jennifer Oram, Peter Morin, and Brian
Sullivan.

Under MGL Chapter 40A, S 5 the Planning Board is given the responsibility for
holding a public hearing before zoning amendments are adopted, and is required to make
a report to Town Meeting on all zoning amendments. The Planning Board will hold the
public hearing on the proposed revisions on February 25, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. in the
Selectmen's Hearing Room.

The Special Bylaw Review Committee met five times, and received input from
other boards, committees, town officials and members of the public. The Committee
worked closely with Barbara St. Andre, Esq. of Petrini and Associates. Building
Commissioner Neil Duggan and Town Planner Laura Harbottle attended the Committee’s
meetings and provided their point of view based on experience using the bylaw.

The Committee is presenting to Town Meeting a proposed revision that preserves

those parts of the Bylaw that seem to work well, and that revises those sections that are
out of date, vague, redundant, or need revision for other reasons. In addition, the Zoning
Bylaw was re-organized and a Table of Uses was added to make the Bylaw more user-
friendly. The new draft, including the proposed changes, can be accessed here. Hard
copies of the revisions are also available at the Town Hall at the Town Clerk’s office, the
Planning Board office and the Building Department office. The following is a section by
section explanation of the proposed changes, including references to those sections that
have been preserved from the current Bylaw.

SECTION 100 – Purposes –Minor edits.

SECTION 200 – Definitions – A number of new definitions have been added. In

addition, some definitions were moved from other parts of the Bylaw to Section 200,
notably, a number of uses which were defined in Section 400. Those definitions have
been moved with only minor edits for clarification. Examples of these are definitions of
Commercial Service Establishment, Light Manufacturing, and Private Garage. Other
definitions that are in the current Zoning Bylaw were updated or modified.

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Among the new definitions are the following:

COMMERCIAL KENNEL
A single premises on which are kept four or more dogs over the age of
three months which is maintained as a business for the boarding of dogs,
the grooming of dogs, or one which sells dogs born and raised on the
premises from four or more litters per year.

(This definition is based on the definition of commercial kennel found in the Town’s
General Bylaws.)

FAST FOOD ESTABLISHMENT

An establishment in which 40% or more of its annual sales (projected or
actual) are derived from the sale of food and beverages in a ready-to-
consume state directly to a customer from a servicing counter for
consumption off the premises or for consumption on premises if said food
or beverage is served in single service/disposal containers.

GROSS FLOOR AREA

The sum of the areas of the several floors of a building, including areas
used for human occupancy in basements, attics, and penthouses, as
measured from the exterior faces of the walls. It does not include cellars,
unenclosed porches or attics not used for human occupancy. It shall
include the horizontal area at each floor level devoted to stairwells and
elevator shafts.

HOTEL OR MOTEL
A building or group of buildings containing more than ten guest rooms
without individual cooking facilities for transient occupancy and let for
compensation. A restaurant, dining room, or related consumer and retail
services may be provided within the building or buildings.

LOT LINE, FRONT

The dividing line between a street and an adjacent lot.

LOT LINE, REAR:

The lot line opposite and most distant from the front lot line. In the case of
a corner lot, the rear lot line shall be an arc located 30 feet from the point
opposite the intersection of the two streets where two lot lines that are not
front lot lines intersect, as shown in the diagram below. For other
irregularly shaped lots, the rear lot line is composed of all lot lines that are
parallel to, or closely parallel to, the front lot line.

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 LOT LINE, SIDE
Any lot line that is not a front or a rear lot line.

RESTAURANT
A building or portion thereof containing a kitchen and tables and/or booths
which is used for the preparation, sale and consumption of food on the
premises, and which may include outdoor seating for patrons.

STREET OR WAY
Any street or way providing legally sufficient frontage for a division of
land under the requirements of General Laws chapter 41, Section 81L.

TEMPORARY OUTDOOR SALES

Any outdoor sales activity which by its nature will begin and end within a
period of 180 days or less, including but not limited to festivals, seasonal
and holiday sales and sidewalk sales.

The following proviso was also added to the Definitions section:

Terms not defined in this Section or elsewhere in this Bylaw but defined
in the State Building Code shall have the meanings given in the State
Building Code.

SECTION 300 – Establishment of Districts – The designation of the residential

districts was changed from A-1, A-2, and A-3 to R-1, R-2, and R-3 to make it clearer that
these are residential zones. Section 340, which sets forth the purposes of each district,
has been updated to include certain districts that had not been previously included.

The Open Space Preservation District (OSPD) and Flood Insurance Districts are
redundant and were therefore deleted. The Flood Insurance District no longer has any
substantive provisions. The OSPD is similar to other districts such as Flexible Open
Space, and the OSPD as a practical matter is very rarely used.

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SECTION 400 – Use Regulations – This Section has been re-organized. A Table of
Uses has replaced the current bylaw sections that list the allowed uses in each district.
The current version of Section 400 was difficult to work with since it required
comparisons of pages of material in order to determine the allowed uses in each district.
The new Table of Uses shows the uses allowed in each district in a clear, easy to use
format. Except as noted below, the uses allowed under the current Zoning Bylaw in each
zoning district have not been changed, simply re-codified in the Table of Uses.

Following the Table of Uses are Special Provisions for Residential Uses, Special
Provisions for Commercial Uses, and Special Provisions Applicable to All Districts.
These Sections contain the details for certain of the uses set forth in the Table of Uses,
and all of these Sections were taken from the existing Zoning Bylaw provisions, Section
400, and simply re-organized.

The following uses were added as allowed uses: Commercial Kennel (prohibited in all
districts except the Commercial District, where it is allowed by special permit), Fast Food
Establishment (prohibited in all districts except GB, HB and C, where it is allowed by
special permit), and Temporary Outdoor Sales approved by Board of Selectmen (allowed
in all districts). Under the current Zoning Bylaw, there was no provision to allow
temporary outdoor sales such as Heritage Days and sidewalk sales; this provision will
allow temporary outdoor sales if approved by the Board of Selectmen. In addition, the
allowed uses in the Commercial District were altered to allow multi-family residential by
special permit.

SECTION 460 Saltmarsh and Tideland; Unchanged except for minor edits.

SECTION 470 Flood Plain and Watershed District: The special permit granting authority
for this Section was changed from the Planning Board to the Board of Appeals. Most of
the applications for special permits in this overlay district involve prior nonconforming
uses and/or structures which require a finding under General Laws Chapter 40A, Section
6 from the Board of Appeals. It made sense to have the Board of Appeals also rule on
the Flood Plain and Watershed Protection District’s special permit rather than require the
applicant to go to two different boards.

SECTION 490: Planned Development District: The subdistrict on affordable housing has
been updated to comply with current regulations, including the more limited scope of
local preference allowed. The requirements for its two sub-subdistricts, A-1 and A-2,
have been combined in one section. In addition, rental and homeowner housing will now
both be allowed in either A-1 or A-2 under special permit, and the Housing Authority is
no longer named as the only potential applicant.

SECTION 500 – Special Districts

SECTION 510 Residential Cluster: A density bonus for affordable housing was added.

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SECTION 520 Water Resource Protection District: The requirement that a buffer of 200
feet be maintained from any tributary of Tack Factory Pond was eliminated. The use of
the word “tributary” was vague, and has led to enforcement problems and litigation.

SECTION 530 Accessory Dwellings: This was modified to include provisions mirroring
some of the provisions in the Affordable Accessory Dwelling Bylaw that was recently
enacted by the Town. These include allowing an accessory dwelling in a single family
home that is nonconforming, and allowing an accessory dwelling in a detached building
on the same lot as the single family home.

SECTIONS 540 Wireless Communication: Minor edits.

SECTION 550 Flexible Open Space: The requirement that the density sketch plan be
based on perc tests performed on each proposed lot has been eliminated. It was felt that
this requirement results in unnecessary disruption of the land. Application requirements
were updated, and this Section now establishes a requirement that a minimum of 30% of
the parcel be protected open space.

560 Village Business Overlay District; 570 Humarock Village Residential Overlay
District: Minor edits.

SECTION 600 – Dimensional Requirements – This section has some minor edits and
re-organization, as well as a few substantive changes noted below.

SECTION 610: Requirements for Lot width clarified. In Section 610.4, requirements for
Reduction of lot size were clarified.

The Cushing Highway Egress Control provisions were moved to Section 620.3 from
Section 750.

SECTION 700 - General Provisions Affecting All Districts

SECTION 710 Signs: Minor edits.

SECTION 720 Common Driveway: Minor edits.

SECTION 730 Wireless Communication Antennas: Moved from Section 790; minor
edits only.

SECTION 740 Wind Energy Conversion System: Minor edits.

SECTION 750 Design Review for Business, Commercial, Mixed Use and Multifamily
Development: Moved from Section 950; minor edits only.

SECTION 760 Parking: A number of new use categories were added to the Table of
Minimum Requirements and assigned formulas for determining the required parking.

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The provision allowing the Planning Board to issue a special permit to temporarily waive
construction of parking under Section 760.5 was clarified to allow a permanent waiver of
some parking if it is demonstrated during a two-year period that the parking is adequate.
Provisions were added to allow the Planning Board to require bicycle racks and new
pedestrian access connected to that already existing. A provision allowing the Planning
Board to waive the off-street parking requirements in the business zones where
appropriate was added.

SECTION 770 Site Plan Review: Former Sections 730 and 770, which both contained
Site Plan Review provisions, have been combined in this Section. They are referred to in
the proposed new bylaw as Administrative Site Plan and Major Site Plan review. The
special permit designation for Major Site Plan Review was eliminated. A threshold for
Major Site Plan Review would be established when additional building area or a new use
has an increased parking demand of at least five spaces. The procedure for the Planning
Board to waive site plan review for minor projects would be clarified. The Standards for
Review have been updated. Additional provisions covering administrative issues such as
appeals have been added.

SECTION 800 – Nonconforming Uses and Structures – Major revisions were made to
comply with current case law. The standards upon which the Building Commissioner
may allow changes to nonconforming single and two family homes have been spelled out
with objective criteria.

SECTION 900 – Administrative – This Section combines former Sections 900, 1000,
and 1100 into one section and re-organizes and clarifies their existing language. The
maximum fine for violations was increased from $25 to $300. The non-criminal penalty
of $25 was maintained.