WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board last week discussed a number of proposals it hopes to bring forward to town meeting and acknowledged that at least one likely won't be ready in time for this May's annual meeting.

 

The latest in a series of Planning Board initiatives to allow a greater variety of housing options in town has them looking at an Open Space Residential Development bylaw.

 

Kenneth Kuttner, who is taking the lead on studying an OSRD proposal along with Roger Lawrence, told the board that initial concepts they pitched in the summer need to be considered in the context of the town's existing Major Residential Development bylaw, found in Section 7 of the town's zoning bylaw.

 

"Roger and I met with [Community Development Director Andrew Groff] last week to discuss the interaction between our thoughts on OSRD and the existing bylaw," Kuttner said. "There's a lot of overlap and, potentially, redundancy. If we do a whole new OSRD, we should think about how to rationalize Section 7.

 

"Roger and I need to work on two tracks: extend the Open Space Residential Development idea and figure out how to modify the existing Section 7 or transform the existing Section 7."

 

Not for the first time, Groff noted at last Tuesday's meeting that the Major Residential Development bylaw has not been used by a developer in town since he started at Town Hall nearly 18 years ago.

 

"The Major Residential Development Bylaw seems to have done its job by preventing more rural sprawl in rural parts of town but not doing its job in that it's not letting parts of town develop that are infill and could be developed," Groff said.