Zoning Bylaws/ MPAC Mission:

It is the charge of the Master Plan Action Committee to develop recommendations to the Planning Board and the Board of Selectmen about revisions to the Charlemont Zoning Regulations. These revisions will be widely discussed in town before they will go before town meeting. The Master Plan Action Committee is working with consulting planners from the Franklin Regional Council of Governments funded by a Growth Technical Assistance grant from the State and funding from the Highlands Communities Initiative.

Information submitted by Gisela Walker

Here is an update on the process between now and town meeting re the proposed zoning revisions so the rumor mills all have the same facts to work with:

1) There will be a final public hearing on May 29 at 7 at the School to present the few changes we had to make based on town counsel review. Since the lawyer did not get us his comments until the day before the last public hearing, we could not include his suggested changes then and so we have to do it one more time.

2) The vote on the bylaw will be the first warrant article at town meeting by vote of the selectboard. The Planning Board by law has to give a report to town meeting so we will go over the key details of the proposed bylaw then as well as at the hearing on 5/29.

3) As last time there are two versions of the proposed bylaw available: one that includes the language dropped from the present bylaw and one that is just the proposed text, called 'clean' version. Both are available at town hall and will be on the website within a few days.

The majority of Planning Board members consider this proposed bylaw to be a good synthesis of all the opinions and preferences we have heard over the past 2 1/12 years. We urge you to vote in favor of it. I am attaching a two-page summary sheet of the key features of this bylaw.

Zoning language IS tedious but it is the tool that we have to work with on an almost daily basis. We need these revisions to do the job well that you elected us to do.

The Planning Board has provided a two-page summary of the process for 2008:

Summary of the 2008 Zoning Bylaw Change Process (PDF 49KB)

Clean proposed zoning bylaw 5/6/08:

Charlemont Zoning Bylaws - Public Meeting Version (PDF 146KB)  

The zoning map is a large file that may take a long time to download.

Charlemont Proposed Zoning Map 08-17-07
 (PDF 31,342KB) Map is outdated and large but may contain useful information.

These documents are available in PDF format. For more information about viewing and/or downloading these file types see Help: Download.