SOUTH HADLEY — At the Special Town Meeting on Nov. 13, South Hadley residents voted against five out of the 12 articles, including all of the proposed zoning bylaws.
Articles 9-12 were all proposed by the Planning Board and Select Board Chair Andrea Miles said the board has received “a bunch” of emails asking the Select Board to not include various zoning bylaws but said she was hesitant to do so because “that would be the Select Board suggesting that the Planning Board hadn’t been doing their job,” and “we have elected Town Meeting members and it is their job to vote on the articles.”
Article 9 was an amendment to Zoning Bylaw 255-31 Flexible Development and 255 Attachment 1 Use Regulations Schedule.
Based on the background, the Planning Board has been working on amendments to the 1995 Subdivision Regulations since July 2023.
Flexible Development is a zoning tool that essentially creates a subdivision or other residential development with multiple dwellings with a portion of the site devoted to protected open space.
The proposed amendments to the Flexible Development Bylaw are needed to ensure consistency with the updated Subdivision Regulations, and to incentivize use of it as an alternative to a traditional subdivision which does not require any protection of open space.
The Planning Board stated that since the adoption of the Flexible Development Bylaw in 2004, it has only been used three times and is therefore not an effective zoning tool for stimulating new residential development that has the added benefit of protecting open space.
Planning and Conservation Director Anne Capra gave a presentation on the proposed amendment to the zoning bylaw. She explained that developers who want to build on a parcel that’s three acres or larger, would need to complete a resource assessment identifying primary and secondary conservation areas.
Depending on the percentage of land conserved on the parcel, developers can receive slight increases in the number of units allowed, as well as extra bonuses for affordable housing units.
After the presentation, each member of the Planning Board expressed their support or information regarding the bylaw. They expressed they have been working on this bylaw for some time now.
The town needs 350 units to meet the 10% state requirement for affordable housing and there is nothing in the bylaw that requires affordable housing, according to Planning Board member Joanna Brown, the one Planning Board member against the proposed article.
Once the Planning Board was finished, nearly 20 speakers from the audience came to the microphone to express their opinion, with a majority opposed to the amendment.
Those opposed expressed their concerns including they thought it gave too much control to the developers by opening up more parcels for development by right rather than by special permit.
The one flexible development that was constructed in town, Skinnerwoods, had residents cautious to accept this proposed article because during that project, mature trees were completely clear cut and conditions in the permit were ignored by the developer.
After over an hour of discussion, the vote article did not receive a two-thirds majority vote and was not approved.
Article 10 was to see if the town would vote to adopt a new Zoning Bylaw Common Drive to regulate multi-family developments and developments with more than one building for dwelling purposes on a single parcel of land.
The intent of this bylaw was to remove regulation of non-subdivision roads from the Subdivision Regulations, and establish standards for their design, construction and maintenance separately within the Zoning Bylaw.
An example of a non-subdivision roadway, called a “common drive,” would be a roadway within a multifamily development such as a condominium complex.
Article 11 was to see if the town would vote to adopt a new Zoning Bylaw Common Open Space to provide consistent standards for the provision and maintenance of such wherever common open space is required as a component of a residential development within the Zoning Bylaw.
The intent of this bylaw was to create consistent standards for common open space for all sections of the Zoning Bylaw where such is required.
The proposed bylaw is essentially composed of all of the common open space standards that are being pulled out of the Flexible Development Bylaw.
Article 12 was to see if the town would vote to amend the Zoning Bylaw Chapter 255-47 multi-family and multiple dwellings by deleting subsection D. The proposed Zoning Bylaw package addresses numerous goals, objectives and actions in the 2020 Master Plan.
Articles 10-12 all did not pass after not receiving a two-thirds majority vote.
Article 6 also did not pass which was add a bylaw that deals with animal impoundment. South Hadley currently has no protocol to impound a dog or animal and doesn’t have a pound to keep that animal.
The bylaw would allow the town to house the animal found without a license, an animal that acts as a nuisance or danger to residents or any animal that violated a bylaw by Select Board order.
Every other article passed including the reallocation of funds to the Buttery Brook Park project and new school van.
Town Meeting also approved the transfer of $240,000 from Enterprise Fund Receipts and $500,000 from Landfill Retained Earnings the sum of $740,000 to purchase trash and recycling carts for the towns new trash collection system set to start July 1, 2025.
