Williamstown Planners Continue Revamp of Water St. ZoningBy Andy McKeever, iBerkshires Staff
06:30PM / Wednesday, August 10, 2011 | |
 The Planning Board set goals for the upcoming year on Tuesday. |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board will continue its efforts to fill Water Street by creating urban living.
The board laid out some of its goals Tuesday and re-appointed Pat Dunlavey as the chairman. For this year, board member and architect Ann McCallum will continue work on zoning bylaws that allow greater usage of buildings on Water Street.
Last year, voters approved allowing some buildings on Water Street to allow residential usage on the ground floor but the work is far from complete. In the coming year, McCallum will take the lead in revamping the bylaws to allow multifamily homes, adding second dwellings and allowing the construction of townhouses in the village-business district.
"I'll investigate allowing second dwelling units on lots in several buildings in the village-business district and in some of the more rural districts. We feel we might be able to save barns and other rural buildings if we allow a second dwelling unit," McCallum said. "I think there are many places where it would be in the public interest to allow them."
Allowing second dwellings to be built will not only help residents who want to build a guest house or transform a barn or garage into an apartment but will also help fill areas like Water Street. Currently residents are allowed to renovate but can not build a new second dwelling on that same piece of land.
Updating bylaws to allow townhouses on Water Street would be coupled with the village-business district revamping. Currently, townhouses do not fit in the bylaws.
"If we think townhouses are a good idea for some places in town, we need to come up with some regulations," McCallum said.
Also with Water Street, the board debated moving forward with developing plans and an request for proposal to develop the former town garage site. However, uncertainty around what kind of impact the Cable Mills project may have on the area caused hesitation.
The town's master plan will be also be updated by a committee consisting of residents and town officials this year but exactly how the process will proceed will be developed by Town Planner Andrew Groff.
"It's an opportunity to look back at what's been done in the last 10 years," Groff said.
The plan is updated every 10 years and because it has been updated throughout the years, this time around will be more for minor tweaking. Groff added that input from residents is important to the process.
"I think we've been keeping it updated," member Dick DeMayo said. "We don't need to do the whole hubbub."
The board also plans to revisit crafting a solar panel bylaw. Instead of writing a bylaw from scratch like the board had previously discussed, they can now pick and choose elements they want from other towns that have written one.
Additionally the board wants to close off room for interpretation in subdivision regulations and work with Keith Davis, a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals and a candidate for the Planning Board in the last election, in smoothing out variances. During his campaign Davis advocated for reducing the number of special permits that go through the ZBA.
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