Williamstown Planners Finalizing Draft of New Subdivision Bylaw
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board last week gave its final direction to the consultants hired to help the panel rewrite the town's subdivision control bylaw.
The town's contract with Northampton's Dodson and Flinker Landscape Architecture and Planning, which is funded by a state grant, expires on June 30, and the consultant is set to deliver a draft document in early July.
Last Tuesday, the board reviewed the latest progress from the consultant and considered some of the points discussed at its final, lengthy, video conference with Dodson and Flinker and its team on May 26.
Ultimately, plans to take the final draft and make any last decisions before presenting it to the town for a public hearing and adoption by the Planning Board later this year. Its goal has been to make the subdivision bylaw easier to navigate and more contemporary in order to encourage economic development.
At Tuesday's regular monthly meeting, Planning Board Chair Kenneth Kuttner told his colleagues he felt a lot of the issues were resolved at the May 26 session, including the development of a regulatory regime that ties infrastructure requirements to the size of a proposed development.
He also said he thought Dodson and Flinker's proposed language properly distinguishes between proposed developments in the town's core and those proposed in its rural residential districts.
"The thing they suggested, which I thought was interesting, was the 'payment in lieu of' for things like sidewalks in the rural area," Kuttner said in a meeting telecast on the town's community access television station, WilliNet. "So we could keep the sidewalk in the subdivision areas but require in the rural areas, payment in lieu of, which, as he said, would put the urban and rural development on an equal footing in terms of development cost.
"They were very constructive in terms of suggesting language for requests for waivers to provide some guidance, so it's not totally discretionary but, at the same time, provides the flexibility I think we would need to do things like the Summer Street subdivision."
Waivers — and when to grant them — have been a concern for the members of the board, who want a bylaw that allows some flexibility without creating an environment where board decisions seem arbitrary.
Board member Roger Lawrence brought what he characterized as a "laundry list" of items he wanted to address with the consultants before time ran out on the grant. The board decided that some of the issues he brought up at the June meeting were best left to future discussions of zoning bylaws which are related to but distinct from the subdivision control bylaw.
One thing unique to the subdivision regulations is their treatment of low-impact development drainage techniques.
Lawrence noted that the current bylaw has a general principle of allowing "open drainage" in the rural parts of town while requiring closed drainage (piping) in the General Residence District. He suggested that the language be changed to, wherever possible, allow LID systems, which incorporate rain gardens, swales, and other techniques that allow stormwater to be treated and absorbed by the ground on site.
"It makes sense to me that we leave open the door to LID in General Residence where it's appropriate," Lawrence said. "Any open drainage we have is going to need to be designed and reviewed by a licensed landscape architect or civil engineer regardless.
"So it makes sense to me that we have an open path where that ... was one standard path to having open drainage in the [General Residence] as well as the [Rural Residence]."
Kuttner agreed that the proposed revision to the subdivision bylaw could make allowance of LID techniques more explicit.
"I think the way we came out also was: Because this is one of the areas where the ability to do rain gardens and whatnot is going to be so site specific it's hard to hard-code that into the subdivision regulations," Kuttner said. "Maybe we want to tweak that language to allow open drainage 'whenever possible,' and make it a little more encouraging than: Closed-drainage is the default."
Kuttner also noted that any LID features on private property would be the responsibility of the landowner — presumably a homeowners association in the case of a multi-home development — to maintain.
Lawrence also raised an issue related to fire suppression in the subdivision rules. He noted that as drafted, the regulation did not specify the size of a water cistern that would be required for developments outside of the town's hydrant system.
"I'm thinking 20,000 gallons is a good figure, but I couldn't find that figure in my notes," Lawrence said. "And that would be in the subdivision regulations. Is that a number we have yet to nail down."
Kuttner said he or Community Development Director Andrew Groff would confirm that cistern size with the fire chief and make sure the right figure is included in the proposed bylaw.
The rest of the board last Tuesday authorized Kuttner and Groff to hold final discussions with Dodson and Flinker before June 30 to iron out any remaining details in order for the board to have a completed draft for review in July. Groff also noted that the board may be able to consult with representatives of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission for any lingering questions that come up after the contract with the Northampton consultants expires.
In other business, the Planning Board decided to postpone a discussion of reorganizing for the 2026-27 until it was at full strength; member Samantha Page was unable to attend the June meeting.
The board also discussed its priority projects for the year ahead, including a couple of topics that arose from the subdivision control bylaw revision process: a revised zoning bylaw on shared driveways and a new town policy on road acceptance.
"[Dodson and Flinker] did a great job with the subdivision regulations, as [Kuttner] noted, trying to streamline them and make what we want easier to accomplish," Groff said. "But we're still going to have to tackle this road acceptance piece.
"I think the consensus from a few months ago seemed to be coalescing around some changes to represent a policy choice of: If you build this the way the regs say it should be built, you should propose it for acceptance [by the town] within X number of years. What that term is, I don't know. It could be five, four, I don't know. That's where I recall we were headed in late winter."
Other projects the board plans to tackle in the year ahead include developing bylaws that will bring the town into compliance with the provisions of the commonwealth's Seasonal Communities program and continuing to develop zoning bylaw changes that would enable more mixed-use development in the town's Planned Business and Limited Business Districts.
Tags: Planning Board, zoning,
