Overview:
The Board of Planning and Community Development in Athol has recommended that proposed changes to the town's zoning bylaws be put to a vote at a Town Meeting in November. The changes relate to the definitions of "family" and "boarding house" and are central to a hearing regarding the establishment of a sober house at 217 Spring St. The town's building inspector and zoning enforcement officer, Bob Legare, is seeking to revise the definitions to require a group of five or more unrelated persons to not be deemed a "family" and to require a special permit for any dwelling housing more than four unrelated persons.
ATHOL – At its meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 1, the Board of Planning and Community Development voted to recommend that proposed zoning bylaw changes go before voters at a Town Meeting planned for November.
Athol’s building inspector and zoning enforcement officer Bob Legare told the board he is seeking to change the current definitions of “family” and “boarding house” included in the bylaws. Board Chair David Small said the vote does not constitute an endorsement of the changes.
Legare appeared before the board just one day after the Zoning Board of Appeals opened a hearing relative to the establishment of a sober house at 217 Spring St. The town’s definition of “family” is a central issue of that hearing.
Andrew Tine, attorney for James Parmenter, who owns the property, argued before the ZBA that people are in fact allowed to reside at the home under the town’s current definition of “family.”
“When he started this process,” said Tine at the Sept. 30 ZBA meeting, “it was very clear that he could do this legally.”
The zoning bylaws define a family as, “Any number of individuals living or cooking together on the premises as a single housekeeping unit.” Parmenter said at the ZBA meeting that under that definition, he could operate the sober house “by right.”
There are three people now living at the Spring Street address, but Parmenter wants to eventually accommodate up to 10.
Parmenter and his attorney are appealing a decision handed down by Legare that, rather than constituting a family, the sober home more closely meets the town’s definition of a “boarding house,” which would require a special permit.
According to the zoning bylaws, a boarding house is defined as, “Any dwelling in which more than three persons not members of the family residing on the premises, either individually or as families, are housed or lodged for hire with or without meals. A rooming house or a furnished rooming house shall be deemed a boarding house.”
Legare said he wants to revise the definition of family to read “A person or number of persons occupying a dwelling unit and living as a single housekeeping unit, provided that a group of five or more unrelated persons shall not be deemed a ‘family’ where not related by blood, marriage or adoption, including wards of the state.”
Legare also wants to define boarding house as “Any dwelling in which more than four persons not members of the family residing on the premises, either individually or as families, are housed or lodged for hire with or without meals. A rooming house or a furnished rooming house shall be deemed a boarding house.”
Last Wednesday’s vote sends the proposed changes to the Selectboard, which will determine what articles will be included on the Town Meeting warrant. If the Selectboard agrees to include the proposed zoning bylaw changes on the warrant, the Planning Board will hold a public hearing to decide whether or not to endorse the proposed changes.
The ZBA is scheduled to continue the hearing on Parmenter’s appeal at its next meeting on Oct. 22.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.