SWAMPSCOTT – A new Planning Board subcommittee aims to clear up confusion brought on by extremely literal language in the Swampscott zoning bylaw.The Zoning Bylaw Review Subcommittee will be charged with looking into the language and recommending changes to be made in the bylaw to the Planning Board, according to Town Planner Pete Kane.According to Kane, this is the second time there has been a need for a Zoning Bylaw Review Subcommittee. In 2007 a subcommittee was formed to make updates on the bylaw, but it was disbanded in 2009. This time around, the subcommittee will be looking for “issues where people are getting penalized for things they didn?t intend to get penalized for.”Kane said according to the current bylaw, construction companies doing work in Swampscott could face fines for putting their company?s sign on the fence in front of a project site – but they wouldn?t know that because it isn?t specifically noted in the bylaw.Kane said sign restriction was put into the bylaw to eliminate construction promotion signs staked in Swampscott front yards. The bylaw stated that the signs needed to somehow be attached to the building being worked on. But what about buildings that aren?t built yet? Kane said they cannot put the signs on the fence, but the exact language isn?t there.Another bylaw requires homeowners to acquire special permits if the square footage in their garage added to the home puts them over the limit. Kane said when that part of the bylaw was put together, basements and attics were deemed uninhabitable and therefore only counted into the house?s square footage in certain circumstances, but since garage area was never specified it was automatically counted.?These issues typically come up in Zoning Board of Appeals meetings,” said Kane. “These are issues that need to be worked out and thought through.”One example of that is the way awnings aren?t permitted on Humphrey Street business storefronts. Kane said it was decided in the last committee that in order to get more conformity with the awnings belonging to the different businesses, they forbid owners to put up new awnings as the originals became worn. Kane said no language allowed for anything to be done about new uniform awnings. The problem with no awnings is it brings more heat into the south-facing windows, which causes businesses to turn up the air conditioning, driving up energy costs.?It?s more about trying to find the problems in our bylaw we can correct,” said Kane. The subcommittee will also compare Swampscott?s zoning bylaw to surrounding towns to find out “how we can better define it,” Kane added.Kane is looking for “interested residents and professionals” to be a part of the second subcommittee, as expressed in a press release last week.Kane said the correction recommendations will “all come down to town meeting” where voting members will decide to accept or reject the new language.Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].