Rochester’s Zoning Bylaw Review Committee is already moving beyond the bylaw changes it was formed to create for the January 2025 special town meeting.
Committee Chair Richard Cutler began the November 7 meeting by noting he recently met with town counsel, who made a few minor changes to the panel’s current bylaw proposals. Now these articles, which regard new regulations for accessory dwelling units and short-term rentals and revised regulations for Use Variances, are being forwarded to the Planning Board for that panel’s public hearings on them, he said.
He then quickly pivoted to what the Review Committee will do now. It will not fold up shop after the January 27, 2025, special town meeting, he said.
“Our next task will be what is and what is not permitted in our bylaws,” he said. He told the board members who were present, Davis Sullivan, Mary McCann and Mark Wellington, that he would like each of them to make a list of what zoning bylaw uses apply either for a special permit or ‘by right’ within the town’s Residential/Agricultural districts and bring their lists to the next Bylaw Review Committee.
“We want what should be permitted and should not be permitted at all,” he elaborated. He added that the committee will tackle the categories of permitted by right and by special permit in the business districts separately.
As board members discussed what kind of ‘uses’ should go on the list, the priority of discarding the old and making room for the new emerged. Cutler recited a list of some possible new and old uses to consider or reconsider, such as a wireless communications consultant, a hospital or a sanitarium. “They don’t call them sanitariums anymore,” he remarked.
Later, Cutler suggested that pickle ball courts, as an example, should be put in as a special permit not by right. “Pickle ball courts can get noisy,” he said. “We don’t want neighbors to be disturbed.”
He later added as another suggestion, “We have to consider uses involving future technologies.”
Cutler and Wellington noted the urgency of the new task, noting use regulations have not been revised for over 25 years.
The special town meeting that will review the committee’s current proposals will be January 27, 2025, at 7:00 pm in the Rochester Memorial School cafetorium, 16 Pine St.
The next Zoning Bylaw Review Committee meeting will be December 5 at 6:00 pm in the town hall conference room, 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Zoning Board
By Michael J. DeCicco