ROCKPORT — Planning Board members will soon detail planned zoning changes related to the town’s existing Transit Oriented Village Overlay District (TOVOD) zoning bylaw.
The proposal for the district will be considered during an upcoming public hearing on the matter, slated to take place on Saturday, Feb. 24. The hearing will be held in the Brenner Room at the Rockport Public Library.
The hearing will consider whether the changes being considered will comply with the mandate of the guidelines of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities regarding the creation of the town’s MBTA multifamily zoning district.
“This meeting will be somewhat different because we’ll actually have the text of the MBTA bylaw pretty much done,” Planning Board Chairperson Jason Shaw said.
In addition, he said the bylaw itself will be soon be listed on the town’s website, www.rockportma.gov.
“It’ll be posted and people will be able to ask questions about it,” Shaw said. “We are under a tight time frame and we’re not alone.”
A number of towns and cities are facing the same deadline to submit a new zoning plan — with the state requiring plans to be submitted by Dec. 31.
“Rockport is the only town that doesn’t have a planning staff helping,” he said. “We’re the only community that doesn’t have them.”
Shaw predicted the measure will first be formally considered at Annual Town Meeting, slated for April 6, before it is submitted to the state no later than the end of the year.
But before Town Meeting votes on the plan, a draft of the proposed Rockport measure needs to be reviewed by state housing authorities.
“They have to look at it before we vote on it at Town Meeting,” he said. “But this (plan) will be voted on at Annual Town Meeting. This is keeping all of us busy.”
‘Listening sessions held’
Town Administrator Mitchell Vieira has said the town stands to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funding each year if the MBTA multifamily zoning plan is not adopted this year at Town Meeting.
The board recently held two “listening sessions” on the overlay district and the state’s mandate — one that took place in December and another in January.
The need for the district is a result of Section 3A of the state’s Zoning Act, which was adopted in 2021, Shaw said.
Section 3A requires that any MBTA community, such as Rockport, have a zoning district of reasonable size within a half-mile of the train station. Under the mandate, the district must allow for as-of-right multifamily housing suitable for families and children.
Multifamily zoning is defined by the state as zoning that allows for a minimum of 15 dwelling units per acre.
The Planning Board hearing on Feb. 24 will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the Rockport Public Library located at 17 School St.
Regular Planning Board meetings are held on Zoom and take place on the first and third Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m. Comments about Planning Board matters may be sent to planningboard@rockportma.gov.
Stephen Hagan may be contacted at 978-675-2708, or shagan@gloucestertimes.com.