The Peterborough Planning Board has scheduled a workshop to discuss changes to the zoning code after hearing from the community group Citizens for Sensible Zoning at a meeting Wednesday night. This is despite the group missing the board’s deadline for such proposals.
According to the Planning Board’s own rules of procedure, a group of citizens who want to put a zoning amendment on the ballot has to bring it to the Planning Board by October. However, some board members said they think it would still be good to have a meeting for the board to hear the proposals.
“It’s a bit unusual for a large group to come to the board with a proposed zoning change,” said Planning Board Chairman Dario Carrara, but added he would like to make an exception, “In an effort of openness, fairness and what’s good for the town.”
The group is proposing changes to the code associated with Traditional Neighborhood Overlay Zone (TNOZ) I, which was adopted in 2017 to encourage infill and denser development in the areas of town where there is already water or sewer access.
In May 2019, the same group advocated the petition Zoning Amendment 15, which would have repealed the TNOZ II and amended TNOZ I to require larger lot sizes, frontage and setbacks. It won the simple majority, which was all that was initially required, but failed to pass because of a last-minute protest petition filed by supporters of the TNOZs that required a two-thirds majority to pass. TNOZ I currently remains unchanged. TNOZ II was invalidated by the Superior Court at the end of December 2019.
The group’s initial intent was to re-propose the Amendment 15 from last year and repeal TNOZ I, but said they are now pushing a reconsideration of TNOZ I, representatives said during the meeting.
Summer Street resident Jo Ann Carr, who spoke for the group, said this meeting was the earliest possible opportunity for the group to bring anything before the Planning Board, since litigation only recently ended between the group and the town.
“We’re not opposed to higher density development,” she said of the group, but “want to get to some middle ground” with their proposal.
As written, TNOZ I allows for conditions that are “too dense,” she said, but the group supports overlay code that allows for greater density than the underlying zoning code. About eight members of Citizens for Sensible Zoning attended the meeting.
Specifically, the group proposed that TNOZ I be amended to require that a proposal in the TNOZ1 district provides a public benefit such as affordable housing or historic preservation, increase the flexibility of permit processes for Accessory Dwelling Units, and slightly increase the lot sizes for single-family and multi-family residences. The group also proposed that TNOZ I allow a single-family home to be split into three residential units.
Carrara called on the board to discuss how to act on the proposal. Community Development Director Peter Throop confirmed that it was possible to get zoning proposal on the 2020 Town Meeting agenda if the requisite number of workshops and public hearings were completed by the deadline of March 30.
“I don’t understand how this is going to build trust,” board member Sarah Steinberg Heller said of pushing a proposal through for this year’s town meeting.
She said she is also a member of the Peterborough Community Task Force on Housing, and encouraged community members in attendance to come to Task Force meetings, trust the Task Force’s 18-month process, and to not rush to make stopgap solutions in the meantime.
“It feels like the loudest people sometimes hijack the process,” she said.
“You’re all older,” she said of the group delivering the presentation. “You’re not putting everybody’s voices into account in this.”
“It’s not out of the question,” Board member Rich Clark said of the proposed changes. “I just wish you didn’t do it this way. We spent years developing these numbers.”
Ultimately, the board voted 5 to 2 to schedule a workshop to study the proposed changes and ultimately determine whether to pursue a change this year. The workshop is on the agenda for the Planning Board’s regular meeting on Feb. 10, which begins at 6:30 p.m.
Planning Board member Ivy Vann said Thursday morning that she wonders why the board agreed to workshop a proposal submitted so far past the regular cutoff. Vann had been hospitalized and was unable to attend Wednesday’s meeting.
“We have the housing Task Force, the Task Force has work it has to finish. … That was the whole purpose,” she said.
The Peterborough Community Task Force on Housing is scheduled to hold a meeting on Saturday, Jan. 25 from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Peterborough Community Center, and the public is welcome to attend.