Warwick Planning Board & Agricultural Commission Minutes
February 8, 2024
Members present: John Bradford, Brad Compton, Kelly Buchanan, Sandy Renna
Alternate members present: Kady Woods
Members absent: Howard Mathison
Others present: None
Meeting in the Town Hall was called to order at 7:34 pm by Rotating Chair Kady Woods.
Agenda was approved, voted unanimously.
The minutes of the January were approved, voted unanimously.
Announcements & other info
- We all have to take ethics training by the end of July. Do it here: https://massethicstraining.skillburst.com/User/index.php. Create a new account. Select ‘Warwick’ under Organization. Verify your email, set a password, acknowledge receipt, and complete the training.
- Brad will be absent from the March meeting and hearing, as he’ll be out of town. John offered to take minutes.
Review and sign plans
- None
Old business
- ADU by-law: comments from public information session and any modifications to proposed by-law changes.
- The public information session went well. We had 8 attendees, all of whom seemed generally supportive of the changes. There were a number of general questions about ADUs.
- David Young recently mentioned that several rural towns have seen investors buy houses, build ADUs and use them for short-term rentals (such as Airbnb), thus reducing the housing stock. It’s important that we keep our requirement that owners reside in one of the units to head this off.
- Brad suggests we run the warrant article by Town Counsel. Kady will send the text to David Young and request review.
- Discuss ADU Public Hearing, which we’ll do at the start of the next meeting. It needs to be posted in the Athol Daily News, and mailed to the 4 abutting towns in Massachusetts. John will do this.
Timing:Jan 20 – notice to newsletter
Feb 6, 7 pm – public information session
March 14 – public hearing; then finalize article at PB meeting
April 1 – warrant article to Selectboard
- CPTC Annual Conference, Saturday March 16 – Brad
New business and business not reasonably anticipated
- Updates to Planning Board page on new town website –Brad. Correct members and most recent documents are now posted. Will add info about meeting dates and a contact. Kady tried the Planning Board contact email to make sure it goes to John. Any other suggestions? Members will have a look and see what else we want.
Meeting adjourned at 8:10 pm, voted unanimously.
Next meeting: Thursday, March 14, 2024 at 7:30 pm in the Warwick Town Hall, to be chaired by Kelly Buchanan. This meeting will commence with a Public Hearing on the ADU by-law changes.
April – John
May – Sandy
June – Brad
July – Howard
September – Kady
October – Kelly
Submitted by Brad Compton, Secretary