Zoning Revisions Committee Meeting
October 28, 2009 Minutes
City Council Chambers
7:00 PM

1. Public comment

Adam Cohen of the North Street Association noted that the mayoral candidates have been talking about infill design guidelines. Design guidelines will help residents feel more secure about infill development.

2. Announcements, scheduling, and staffing issues

a. November 12 meeting with Planning Board on design issues will be at 8:00 p.m. in Council Chambers. The various groups involved in design (i.e. West Street Design Forum, Northampton Design Forum, ZRC) will all come together to talk.

b. Future meetings will be between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month through December. Time and/or place may change in January.

3. Analysis of current Northampton Zoning Ordinance (continued from previous meeting)

Completed presentation on barriers to infill (Danielle). Questions and group discussion followed:

Today, can we develop the traditional neighborhoods that we already have? No

Are our current urban neighborhoods at higher densities than what the zoning code currently allows? Yes, many of our neighborhoods are already at 12 or more units per acre.

Discussion about history of how Northampton ended up with lower density zoning regulations than the zoning that exists in our best existing neighborhoods.

Wayne noted that the Site Plan Approval process allows parking requirements to be reduced by up to 20%, and that parking requirements can be reduced by much more through the Special Permit process.



4. Subcommittee check-in

Cluster: The cluster rewrite committee has had a number of meetings with stakeholders and civic associations. They also spoke with the Berkshire Design Group.

Energy: The energy committee is scheduling a meeting with the city Energy Coordinator, Chris. They are thinking about how to address energy issues through zoning. Wayne suggested that they address small scale renewable energy generation.

Urban Agriculture: The urban agriculture committee is going to schedule another public meeting to ask for help designing an ordinance to allow more chickens to be kept by residents. The meeting will hopefully be held in a space with internet access. There was some discussion about whether the committee would address other livestock in addition to chickens. The committee decided not to move forward with other livestock because at the public meeting, there was only one goat advocate present, and she does not live in / want to raise a goat in Northampton.

Housing: The housing committee is developing a work plan. The city’s Housing Partnership is working on a housing needs assessment, which will include a component on zoning.

5. Analysis of Northampton Zoning Ordinance (continued).

Completed overview of zoning (Joel). Discussion followed:

The committee discussed design, including examples of bad design.

Parking: We may want to set maximum rather than minimum parking standards. Parking issues include the number of spaces as well as location and design of parking areas. The committee discussed possible use of parking permits in the residential neighborhoods close to downtown. Perhaps the committee we should consider non-zoning solutions too.

Design and parking are the two big issues that cause residents to oppose infill.

One place parking works well is by Northampton Coffee. People park to get coffee during the day, and when the shop closes, people park to go to the bar at night.


6. Translating sustainability goals into zoning (Joel) - Discussion of ten possible sustainability objectives for zoning revisions (see handout):

How many people currently live within ½ mile of downtown? 40% of population is within ½ mile of downtown, and another 10-15% of the population is within ½ mile of downtown Florence.

Adam Cohen: It is important to ensure that there is green space in neighborhoods.

7. Discussion of final product

Would something like these ten objectives help us shape a final product? What should be the form of our final product? Should we submit a single report to the Planning Board with high priority action items?

(Note: The discussion points below have been grouped by subject, not by the order in which they came up)

Approach: Holistic or Piecemeal?

Should we continue to address zoning changes as they come up (in a piecemeal manner) or, because all of the issues are so interconnected, should we develop a more holistic approach? Perhaps we should we address groups of related issues together?

Wayne: There does need to be an overall vision / framework so the recommendations make sense.

Organizing Framework: Zoning Objectives vs. Focus Area-Based Approach

Summary: The committee is considering two different ways of approaching its work. It could review the entire zoning ordinance through the lens of a group of summary sustainability objectives; AND/OR, it could use Conz and other specific areas as design laboratories to consider zoning changes.

Questions that were brought up:
• Is using these new objectives as our organizing framework just moving from one level of abstraction to another?
• Does the place-based approach conflict with the objectives-based approach?
• If we are going to use the place/design-based approach, should we consider what would be sustainable building blocks for different types of neighborhoods? i.e. residential areas, mixed-use neighborhood centers, etc.
• With the design-based approach, could we address gradation / transition from commercial centers to the neighborhoods?

Final Product: Recommendations or Implemented Zoning Changes?

There was discussion about whether the product should be a report with recommendations or, alternatively, implementation of recommended zoning changes. In addition, there was discussion about whether a report would take the form of a single document given to the Planning Board at one time or multiple documents given to the Planning Board as they are completed.

One suggested approach: Subcommittees could divide up the objectives and address each one, recommending zoning changes for each.

We do not want to dump a huge number of recommendations on the Planning Board. Also, if a recommendations package is too big, it will be harder to pass. The Planning Board is concerned that suggested zoning changes will be rejected during the public process, even when it appears at first that the public is in agreement. The Planning Board was hoping that the Zoning Revisions Committee would take recommendations through the entire approval process, step by step.

Role of Committee Members / Division of Labor

There was a discussion about the role of different committee members. We could have technical experts do some of the analysis.

8. Public Process / Public Meeting

If we send a list of recommended zoning changes to the Planning Board, we also need to provide enough information for the Planning Board and public to have an informed discussion. But, we also need to have a public discussion as part of our process.

Do we want to have a public forum before January? Do we have enough information to present what we have so far to the public? How can we engage the public in our process?

The committee decided to hold a public forum after January. Perhaps a citywide public forum on infill?