NAHANT — The Board of Selectmen met Wednesday evening to discuss the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) zoning bylaws and the possible impact that approving the bylaw could have on the community.
It is a bylaw that allows homeowners to create small secondary housing units within or attached to single-family homes. The town has been working to balance the goal of providing more housing options while also maintaining the town’s residential character.
According to section 15.02 of the zoning bylaw article, an ADU is best defined as a self-contained housing unit, including sleeping, cooking, and sanitary facilities on the same lot as the principal dwelling, subject to otherwise applicable dimensional/parking requirements.
A major requirement is that the ADU maintains a separate entrance from the outside or through an entry hall/corridor shared with the principal dwelling unit. Another is that the ADU is not larger in gross floor area than half the gross floor area of the principal dwelling or 900 square feet, whichever is smaller.
Chairman Josh Antrim gave some background on the topic. “We met last week briefly to vote on the ADU zoning article, but ultimately there were a couple minor edits to make, so we decided to reconvene and take a vote.”
After the board votes to accept the Planning Board’s zoning article, it will go back to the Planning Board for the public hearing portion of the process.
“In this case, the Planning Board sent us an article that they want to put on the Town Warrant, and we can either vote to return it to the board or not; we can’t change it,” Antrim explained.
“A piece of legislation was passed that requires communities to allow protected ADUs by right when they conform to your dimensional requirements, which was set forth by your local Zoning Board for single-family zoning,” Town Administrator Tony Barletta said.
Barletta added that the legislation allows for the town to apply regulations. “Those regulations have to be consistent with the zoning requirements set for single-family zoning,” he said.
He continued, “We heard from a lot of residents, I know the Planning Board has heard from residents, about people wanting to be more restrictive, but we can’t be more restrictive than that of what single-family zoning dictates.”
Barletta explained that the state released their final round of regulations early February. The Planning Board has been drafting a local bylaw to that point, absorbing the information from the final regulations, and putting it into the current document, according to Barletta. The article will also be sent to the Attorney General’s office for a preliminary review.
“If we get any comments of issues about what we’re putting forward to Town Meeting, it’s likely that we will need to make an amendment on the floor at Town Meeting,’ Barletta said.
One of the most important elements that was discussed, Barletta noted, was the possible impact the bylaw could have on the community. “State law requires that the town a conforming ADU, and you can go through special permitting if it’s non-conforming,” Barletta said. “It also talks about how you’d handle a second ADU, or a third or fourth, but the town doesn’t have to allow more than one.”
Barletta said it was a key element of discussion to analyze any potential impact on the town or its residents. “This article that’s proposed would limit it to just one ADU that meets the definition of a protected ADU,” he said.
The point was raised by Barletta that given the layout of the town, it would become almost impossible to build new structures that conform and meet definitions. “In most cases in Nahant, building new structures would trigger a special permit process,” he said.
However, Barletta said that the bylaw also allows for residents to convert existing space within the structures they have on their lot to the protected ADU definition.
“If we don’t pass this article, then the state law is in effect and overrules our zoning. This article regulates to the most we can as a community particular to our community,” Barletta said. “So, passing this article is, in a way, protecting our community from the larger opportunities that state law provides.”
The board voted unanimously to pass the article, and will be sending it back to the Planning Board and Attorney General’s office for preliminary reviews.
