Andover Town Meeting Preview: Zoning, Petitioned Articles, More

ANDOVER, MA — Andover residents will gather June 5 to vote on key issues for the years ahead, including long-term expansions to outdoor dining, term limits.

There are 38 articles on the warrant for the meeting, which will take place in the field behind West Middle School on Shawsheen Road on Jan. 5.

The meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. and continue until the full warrant has been addressed. May 17 was the last day to register.

Half of the warrant deals with financial issues, previously previewed in Patch.

The full warrant is available here and the Finance Committee report is here, along with letters from board and committee chairs. Town officials are holding a town meeting preview forum Tuesday.

Non-financial articles preview

Article 1 is the town election, which happened uncontested in March.

Article 2 is the Cornell fuel assistance fund trustee election.

Article 9 is seven housekeeping articles. They can be voted individually or as a group.

Article 11 authorizes the town to acquire easements for use in Chapter 90 Highway Construction and other federal and state road and sidewalk programs.

Article 12 allows the town to grant easements for public purposes.

Article 16 would allow the town to charge interest on late payment on water and sewer bills. This would bring in roughly $85,000 in annual revenue, the Finance Committee estimated.

Articles 17 through 19 allow for Sanborn School land and rooftop space to be leased for solar panels, allows revenues from the development to be accepted as payment in lieu of taxes, and allows excess electricity generated to be applied as credit to other school utility accounts.

Article 21 authorizes the town manager to request seven additional retail package store licenses from the state legislature.

Article 22 creates a means-tested senior citizen property tax exemption.

Article 28 accepts a state law that mandates automatic sprinklers in lodging and boarding houses.

Article 29, which is expected to be withdrawn, would allow the town to accept Monarch Lane and make it a public way.

Petitioned articles

The next five articles were petitioned by residents.

Article 30 would appropriate $75,000 for Merrimack River cleanup. Petitioned by Lindsay Concemi.

Article 31 would change the town election date to the second Wednesday in June. Petitioned by Jose Albuquerque.

Article 32 sets term limits for town offices. Planning Board members would be limited to two consecutive five-year terms, while other boards and committees would have a limit of three consecutive three-year terms. Petitioned by Jose Albuquerque.

Article 33 would create a non-binding ballot question on the town's form of government: open town meeting, representative town meeting, council/manager or council/mayor. Petitioned by Jose Albuquerque. The Finance Committee report notes that the town counsel believes the article is invalid, as ballot questions must be yes or no questions.

Article 34 would create a noise and vibration standards bylaw for the town. Petitoned by Jose Albuquerque.

Outdoor dining

The final two articles would expand outdoor dining and other outdoor commercial uses, based on the success of outdoor dining over the last year.

Article 36 updates the general bylaws to expand outdoor dining and other uses on public property.

Article 37 updates the zoning bylaws to allow additional outdoor uses on private property.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.