About 20 Peterborough residents heard about proposed zoning amendments at an open house hosted by the Peterborough Planning Board and the Planning Department Monday night.

After many of last year’s proposed zoning changes were defeated at the ballot box, the Planning Board is “going more slowly,” according to Chair Carl Staley. Residents will vote on the proposed changes May 13 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Town House.

“We want to give people every opportunity to understand these proposed changes, and we are only taking very small steps,” said Town Planner Danica Melone.

The first proposed amendment proposed revisions to the wetlands protection overlay zone.

“The core of this amendment is clarification of the regulations. We reworked the language to make it very clear what is expected. We removed a confusing five-foot clearance zone, which was a ‘buffer to the buffer,” Melone said.

Conservation Commission Chair Francie Von Mertens said she was “not even aware of the buffer to the buffer.”

“It was a very confusing section of regulation. We have never enforced it,” Melone said.

The second proposed amendment would affect only one property, 75-77 Hancock Road/Route 202. The owners, longtime Peterborough residents, requested that the Planning Board rezone their home, which is currently used for office and residential space, so that they can sell it to interested parties. The home, which is located across the street from Pizza Peddler, is surrounded by commercial properties on all sides.

“The homeowner is still living in the property, and they approached us. The building is completely surrounded by commercial properties, and they would really like to be able to sell it, and they have been very patient, ” Melone said.

Melone explained that because the home is currently zoned in the Commercial District, it can only be used for low-income and affordable housing.

“The buyers who are interested in the property do not want to be tied to a certain type of housing. It is very difficult to make the numbers work on low-income housing,” Melone said. “The potential buyers would just like to flip it for housing and office space.”

Melone said that the board has been weighing rezoning all the properties in the district for a while.

“We are going to look at rezoning a lot of these lots, because the Commercial District is pretty much defunct,” Melone said. “This is a property that is already commercial use. In nature, the change will still align with the spirit and use of the ordinance.”

The third zoning amendment proposes that the requirements for creating a duplex be made equitable across the Family District and the General Residence District. Currently, property owners in the Family District are required to have 40,000 square feet lot to build a single-family home and a 50,000-square-foot lot to build or create a duplex. Property owners in the General Residence District are only required to have 20,000 square feet for a duplex or a single-family home.

Melone presented slides showing multiple places in downtown Peterborough where the Family District and the General Residence District interact.

“In some instances, there are properties where part of the lot is in one district, and part of the lot is in another district. At the old Folkway building, the house is zoned differently from the parking lot,” Melone said. “The way it is now, homeowners in the Family District have to have twice as much space to be able to divide their existing home into a duplex.”

Board member Lisa Stone said the change “could allow people to stay in their homes.”

“There are people with huge homes – 6,000 square feet – who would like to stay where they are and would like to be able to divide their property into two lots, but they don’t have the square footage to create a duplex, while their neighbors across the street would be able to do it just because they are in a different zone,” Stone said. “It is very unfair to people in the Family District.”

Stone noted that “the average family size in Peterborough is 1.3 people.”

If the amendment passes, a total of 72 properties in downtown Peterborough would then be permitted to subdivide into two lots. The frontage requirements in the Family District would stay the same, with 150 feet required per unit. Currently, half of the properties in the Family District are too small to be divided into two lots. If the amendment passes, 12% will still be too small.

Melone said the change would not allow multifamily development in the Family District and “would only allow duplexes.”

Longtime Peterborough resident and businessman George Sterling said he was in favor of the amendment.

“I think it’s a great idea. It will create more housing for people without having to create more infrastructure. Anything we can do make thing more affordable for people,” Sterling said.