Two Openings On Zoning Board of Appeals to Be Filled

Report on the Meeting of the Community Resources Committee, November 2, 2023

The meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded. The recording can be viewed here.

Present: Mandi Jo Hanneke (Chair, at large), Shalini Bahl-Milne (District 5), Pat DeAngelis (District 2), and Jennifer Taub (District 3). Absent: Pam Rooney (District 4)
Staff: Rob Watchilla (Planner, Staff liaison to ZBA) and Rob Morra (Building Commissioner)

At its November 2 meeting, the Community Resources Committee (CRC) discussed procedures for filling a newly announced vacancy on the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). Full member John Gilbert recently submitted a letter of resignation, citing scheduling difficulties as his reason for not being able to continue to serve. This will leave the ZBA with four full members and three associate members. When the ZBA has a full complement of members there are five full members and four associate members. Hence there are two openings that need to be filled. In addition, an associate member is a candidate for School Committee in the upcoming town election, and if they are elected, their position will need to be filled as well.

The ZBA holds public hearings on applications for Special Permits, variances, appeals of decisions made by the Building Commissioner, and Comprehensive Permits. Each permit application requires a panel of 3 to 5 members, depending on the application. Associate members are chosen to sit on a panel if there are not enough  full members available for a hearing. Whoever is on a panel when it begins work must serve through the completion of the application. Each member is entitled to a single absence per application, but must review the recording of the meeting missed.

Gilbert has requested that he be appointed to the associate member opening, but Committee Chair Mandi Jo Hanneke indicated that the CRC must  post both openings, and Gilbert can apply for the position.

Rob Watchilla, the Planning Department’s liaison to the CRC, reported that the ZBA has a packed agenda for the coming months, including applications for two large projects: the Shutesbury Road Solar Project and Valley CDC’s affordable home project in North Amherst. Watchilla thought it was advisable to fill the openings on the committee expeditiously to avoid delays on hearing applications and to prevent overburdening the remaining ZBA members. 

The Amherst Town Charter requires that the town post openings for a minimum of 14 days and then wait an additional 14 days to determine if the applicant pool is sufficient. Also, CRC procedures dictate that the committee chair contact everyone who submitted an application in the past two years and invite them to reapply, but Hanneke asked the committee to consider asking the council for a waiver of some of the rules in order to expedite the application procedures. 

The committee voted unanimously (4-0 with one absent) to request the following waivers from the Town Council.

1. To recommend that the council waive c current CRC policy to allow current full and associate members to use their previous statements of interests to apply for open positions.

2. To recommend that the council grant a waiver to allow committee members to ask follow-up questions during the interviews.

3. To recommend that the council grant a waiver to allow the CRC to declare the applicant pool to be sufficient without waiting an additional 14 days after the 14 days  application period closes.  

A draft of the announcement of the openings can be found here. The announcement was expected to be posted on the town website before the weekend.

Public Comment
No one offered public comment at this meeting

Nuisance House Regulations
The remainder of the meeting was devoted to tweaking the nuisance house section of the Rental Regulations Bylaw revision. The most recent draft can be found here.