Zoning Rewrite Goes Down Narrowly At Town Meeting Night Two

TEWKSBURY, MA — A proposed rewrite of the town's zoning bylaws failed narrowly at the second night of Tewksbury's annual town meeting Wednesday.

Article 34 of the warrant, a complete rewrite and reorganization of the zoning rules, fell just short of the two-thirds majority required to pass a zoning change. The article received 89 votes in favor and 47 against, for 65 percent approval.

Article 35, a matching redraw of the town's zoning map, was withdrawn after article 34 was defeated.

At night one of town meeting Monday, voters 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 The exception, which would have changed the length of planning board terms, was withdrawn by the petitioner.

At the beginning of night two Wednesday, residents quickly approved the four articles in the special town meeting warrant in under fifteen minutes, before spending two hours discussing the proposed zoning changes.

The propsoed 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 noted.

The proposed update renamed some zoning districts, reduced the number of overlay districts, added new definitions and consolidates related information into single sections. The redraw eliminated split-zoned parcels and aligned zoning with the master plan, among other changes.

One amendment was approved for the article; if the article had passed, it would have barred multifamily housing in the Office Research District. Other proposed amendments were either defeated or ruled out of order by the moderator.

Opponents of the article said it was too big and that there was not enough communication about it. Proponents said it was consisted of needed organizational changes and came out of dozens of public meetings.

After a resident moved the question, bringing it to a vote and forestalling further amendments, the article fell narrowly in a standing vote.

The full warrants and handout are available here.

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