Greenfield’s recent changes to the town’s zoning bylaws regarding accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, will provide increased opportunity for affordable housing as well as financial opportunity to residents, according to members of the town’s Zoning Board of Adjustment and the Planning Board. 

Rob Walling, chair of the Greenfield Planning Board, said the board has long been trying to find ways to alleviate the housing shortage at the local level.

“Housing has been something we have been looking at for a while now, trying to figure out how to sensibly implement more housing options in town,  and then Sheldon (Pennoyer) came up with the ADUs idea. The ZBA and the Planning Board had a joint meeting to figure it out, and we brought it forward and it passed at Town Meeting,” Walling said.

Greenfield voters approved changes to the town’s ADU regulations increasing  the maximum square footage of an ADU from 750 square feet, which was the standard state guideline, to 1,400 square feet.  The new regulations also allow up to two ADUs per property as long as the owner is in residence, and the lot configuration allows it. ADUs in Greenfield are also no longer required to be attached to the primary residence by a door, and can be freestanding.

Zoning Board alternate Sheldon Pennoyer, who is an architect, drafted the new ADU bylaw  for the ZBA after extensive meetings with both the ZBA and the Planning Board. 

“As an architect, I have been commissioned many times over the years to build ADUs for families who need to house a family member, and particularly for a family member who needs a caretaker, and 750 square feet is not just not enough space for a person and their caretaker,” Pennoyer said. “It is especially not enough space if the unit needs to be accessible. You can’t have an accessible unit in 750 square feet.”

According to Pennoyer, increasing Greenfield’s ADU limit to 1,400 square feet will make it much easier for units to have a second bedroom or accessible bathroom. Pennoyer noted that some other area towns, such as Hancock, failed in recent attempted to amend their ADU rules, but Greenfield was overwhelmingly in support. 

Pennoyer notes that options for creating multifamily housing in Greenfield are currently limited because the town does not have town water or sewer.

“Looking down the road at ways to alleviate the housing crisis in town, particularly for young people or people on a fixed income, we can’t achieve affordability for multi-family units with one-story buildings,” Pennoyer said. “We may need to seriously look at multistory buildings and how this would fit into the town infrastructure. These would have to be sprinkler buildings, which gets prohibitively expensive, because we don’t have town water, which would mean a cistern.  How do you put 20 units on a site without town sewer and water?”

Unlike most surrounding towns, Greenfield does not have a water treatment plant. 

“These changes to the ADU rules are a first step in ways our bylaws can encourage housing patterns that increase housing stock, as well as provide affordable housing to help our economy, while preserving the rural character of the town,” Pennoyer said. 

Zoning Board member Jarvis Adams said the new rules will help families who want to stay in the area as well as provide economic opportunity for town residents.

“I’m proud of our town for creating this by-law to enable some affordable housing. Our Planning Board and our Zoning Board really worked together on this, and it will have a positive impact on our town,” Adams said. “If people can add an ADU to their property, it can pay their taxes. It’s sustainable. In the long term, people would be able move into their ADU, and rent out their house. We support any initiative that helps people in town stay in their homes, because there are a lot of people who are getting to the point where they are being priced out by taxes.” 

Walling said he felt the town was strongly in support of the change. 

“The new ADU bylaw lets people in Greenfield do what they want more on their own property. We try to allow that as much as we can; to let people do what they want on their own property, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their neighbors, or with the town,” Walling said. “People in town really supported this bylaw change.”