Town Meeting Night Two Preview: Zoning And Special Meeting

TEWKSBURY, MA — Tewksbury's town meeting attendees will return to the high school Wednesday for the second night of the annual town meeting.

The second night begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Tewksbury Memorial High School. Residents will vote on four special town meeting warrant articles, then the annual town meeting will resume at 7:30 p.m. for two major zoning articles.

Night one dealt mostly with budgetary articles including the Fiscal Year 2022 town budget. All articles passed except for one. The exception, which would have changed the length of planning board terms, was withdrawn by the petitioner.

The four special town meeting articles are also budgetary, but for the current and previous fiscal year.

Article one transfers $530,830 between Fiscal Year 2021 departmental budgets to balance them.

Article two uses $479,674 from free cash for the Fiscal Year 2021 public works snow and ice budget. Each year, $600,000 is set aside for that purpose.

Article three uses $120,326 from free cash to fund this including funding the Middlesex Retirement Assessment and paying down the bonds for the Street Light Conversion Project.

Article four transfers $4,824.78 from the library salary budget to pay two unpaid Fiscal Year 2020 bills.

After the special warrant, residents will discuss the showstopper of this year's annual meeting: the rewrite of the town's zoning bylaws and the redraw of the zoning map, articles 34 and 35.

The zoning update dates back to 2015, when the Board of Selectmen created a Zoning Bylaw Committee to work with consultants and cohesively update the zoning rules.

"The Tewksbury Zoning Bylaw has been amended 130 separate times since the most recent version was originally adopted by Town Meeting in 2002," the warrant handout notes.

The update renames some zoning districts, reduces the number of overlay districts, adds new definitions and consolidates related information into single sections. The redraw eliminates split-zoned parcels and aligns zoning with the master plan, among other changes.

Some highlights include:

• Mandated 15 percent affordable housing in multifamily developments — payment of a fee will no longer be allowed in lieu of affordable housing.
• Establishes zoning rules for marijuana establishments, implementing the 2019 town meeting vote that allowed cultivation, manufacturing and research of recreational marijuana
• Multifamily development limited to seven units per acre outside of the Town Center and Mixed Use Business Districts.
• Expands options for housing for older adults like assisted-living and congregate care facilities.

Detailed information on the proposed zoning update is available here, including the full text, a summary of proposed changes and informational videos on subjects like affordable housing and recreational marijuana.

The full warrants and handout are available here.

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