By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — A Special Town Meeting to address the recently adopted state law allowing Accessory Dwelling Units by right in communities throughout the state will be held on Monday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. in the NRHS gymnasium.
The Select Board voted Monday night to finalize Jan. 27 as the date of this meeting after holding a joint meeting with the Community Planning Commission (CPC), which is the sponsor of the articles. The vote needed to take place quickly because the warrant needed to get to the printers the next morning in order to be ready for mailing to each residence in town at the end of the week. The warrants should arrive either Saturday, Jan. 11 or Monday, Jan. 13.
The warrant is relatively short — only seven articles — but nonetheless important. And because it is Special Town Meeting, the town’s charter requires a quorum of 150 voters in attendance. The voter registration deadline to participate in this town meeting is next Friday, Jan. 17 (see details in ad in today’s Transcript).
The urgency in the timeline for this Special Town Meeting is due to the fact that the state law passed late last summer goes into effect on Feb. 2, 2025 which is the date that building inspectors across the state must begin to accept applications for ADU’s.
Under the provisions of the ADU law, communities have not been given the option by the state to opt-in or opt-out, as was the case with the MBTA 3A Communities Act defeated by Town Meeting and at the polls last fall. However, communities have been given the option to modify the law so that it aligns with some of the community’s existing zoning bylaws, such as setbacks to these accessory dwelling units. rement
The CPC has drafted the bylaw and held a public hearing on its proposals Tuesday night (after press time). The Select Board will hold its informational hearing on all seven warrant articles on Thursday, Jan. 23 at which the public will be invited to ask questions about any of the warrant articles.
For instance, Article 2 on the warrant seeks to amend the town’s zoning bylaws to prohibit short-term rentals that are less than 31 days in duration for both the principal dwelling unit and any accessory dwelling units on a property.
Article 3 on the warrant seeks to amend the zoning bylaw to update the Floodplain District as FEMA has updated the maps, as it does periodically. Passage of this article would ensure that the town’s property owners can continue to obtain flood insurance.
