North Andover Town Meeting Thursday: Warrant Article Preview

NORTH ANDOVER, MA — North Andover voters will gather Thursday to decide on next year's budget, a proposed apartment moratorium and more at the 2021 annual town meeting.

The meeting will take place outside on the North Andover High School football field, beginning at 6 p.m.

Initially scheduled for Tuesday, the meeting was postponed to Thursday due to rain in the forecast.

Residents will decide on 32 articles Tuesday, including four that can be voted as a single consent agenda.

The full warrant, Finance Committee report and other documents are available here. All of the "warrant article of the day" posts from the town are available here.

Consent Agenda

Articles 1 to 4 make up the "consent agenda," which can be decided by a single vote if no attendee objects.

Article 1 is accepting the 2020 Annual Report.

Article 2 allows the town manager and superintendent to enter into contracts longer than three years.

Articles 3 and 4 allow the town and the School Committee to accept and grant easements for public purposes.

Other General Articles

Article 5 would add a space on the local tax bill allowing residents to make a donation to a municipal veterans' assistance fund.

Article 6 would require the Finance Committee's report ahead of town meeting to also be available at the Senior Center and the police station but would remove the requirement that notice of the report be published in a newspaper. This change would also require state approval.

Article 7 expands the purpose of the Affordable Housing Trust, according to a change in state law.

Article 8 renames the Disability Commission the Commission on Ability Assistance.

Article 9 transfers part of the Stevens Estate to the Conservation Commission.

Citizen-Petitioned General Articles

Articles 10 and 12 would exempt petitioners Marcel Cuffy and John Baker from the firefighter age limit.

Article 11 requests one additional package store license for Mokunj, LLC at 550 Turnpike Street.

Financial Articles

Article 13 is the $5.8 million Capital Improvement Plan for Fiscal Year 2022, of which $700,000 is for water, sewer and Stevens Estate operations. Projects include maintenance, a new police garage, parking, flooring and drainage in school buildings, a minibus for the Senior Center and playground improvements. $4.1 million would be funded with free cash.

Article 14 is the Community Preservation Fund appropriation of $2.3 million. The town received $589,560 in state matching funds.

Article 15 approves salaries for elected officials.

Article 16 sets the spending limits for revolving funds.

Article 17 is the Fiscal Year 2022 general fund budget. The $112.8 million proposed budget is a 0.95 percent, or $1 million, increase from Fiscal Year 2021.

Articles 18 to 20 are the $5.3 million Water Enterprise Fund, the $5.7 million Sewer Enterprise Fund and the $73,898 Stevens Estate Enterprise Fund.

Articles 21 and 22 transfer $140,162 to the Stabilization Fund and $350,000 to the Capital Stabilization Fund.

Article 23 transfers $148,551.97 from Free Cash to the School Department to cover Fiscal Year 2021 Medicare expenses.

Articles 24 and 25 transfer $1.34 million from Free Cash to the Fiscal Year 2021 General Fund and $2.7 million from Free Cash to the Fiscal Year 2022 General Fund to cover school and Health Department coronavirus expenses.

Article 26 transfers $40,000 from the Overlay Surplus to the General Fund for data collection by the Assessors Department.

Zoning Articles

Article 27 reduces the lot area and street frontage minimums in the CDD2 zoning district, to accord with a 2019 town meeting article.

Articles 28 and 29 allow personal service establishments in the Business 4 Zoning District and. the Downtown Overlay District HIstoric Mill Area Subdistrict A.

Article 30 makes minor edits to the Watershed Protection District.

Article 31 makes the regulations on signage on private property content-neutral, removing bans on obscene and off-premise advertising.

Article 32, petitioned by former Select Board candidate Joseph Finn, would prohibit new building permits for multi-family housing for the next two years. This was the only article to receive "unfavorable" recommendations from the Select Board and Planning Board.

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