Public Hearing for EZ Zone Change Will Be Rescheduled and Re-Advertised: Legal Notice Error to Blame

This coming Wednesday the Planning Board was scheduled to hold a "Zoning Bylaw Public Hearing" for a reworked zoning change proposal for North Lancaster.    It will have to be rescheduled and re-advertised:  the hearing notices that ran in the item were faulty.

Two published legal notices should have advertised a hearing for a change the the Enterprise Zone in North Lancaster.  What actually ran was a notice about a hearing for a new Smart Growth Overlay District: it was the text for the 40R Bylaw hearing that was held on June 8th.

In the paper copies of the Item on 7/29 and 8/5, the notice that ran incorrectly advertised a "Smart Growth Zoning" district change. 

One of the bum hearing notices.  This is the one that ran on 7/29.

If you think you remember attending a hearing for the Enterprise Zone change already, you may be correct -- this is a new hearing for a somewhat revamped zoning change.  

On January 18th the Planning Board held a public hearing on the original version of the same zoning change, which seeks to expand the Enterprise Zone into several parcels in the Residential Zone controlled by Capital Group Properties.   That hearing was held in anticipation of a February Special Town Meeting to consider the article, but the meeting was never scheduled by the Select Board.   The Select Board declined to place the zoning change on the April Special Town Meeting warrant and the May Annual Town Meeting Warrant, opting to wait for a related 40R District proposal that was not ready in time for the Annual Town Meeting.  

The proposal that would have been reviewed on Wednesday has been cleaned up a bit by Town Counsel (the previous language and map were produced by Capital Group Properties last year) with a new map and revamped Concept Plan -- presumably it will eventually appear on a Special Town Meeting Warrant in the fall.

These "zoning bylaw public hearings" are part of a burden the the town has to meet before any zoning change is considered at town meeting.   The notice requirements do their best to ensure that no zoning changes are considered without adequately notifying everyone who might take umbrage to the change.  The notice requirements are listed in MGL Chapter 40A Section 5:

"Notice of the time and place of such public hearing, of the subject matter, sufficient for identification, and of the place where texts and maps thereof may be inspected shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the city or town once in each of two successive weeks, the first publication to be not less than fourteen days before the day of said hearing, and by posting such notice in a conspicuous place in the city or town hall for a period of not less than fourteen days before the day of said hearing. Notice of said hearing shall also be sent by mail, postage prepaid to the department of housing and community development, the regional planning agency, if any, and to the planning board of each abutting city and town. The department of housing and community development, the regional planning agency, the planning boards of all abutting cities and towns and nonresident property owners who may not have received notice by mail as specified in this section may grant a waiver of notice or submit an affidavit of actual notice to the city or town clerk prior to town meeting or city council action on a proposed zoning ordinance, by-law or change thereto. Zoning ordinances or by-laws may provide that a separate, conspicuous statement shall be included with property tax bills sent to nonresident property owners, stating that notice of such hearings under this chapter shall be sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any such owner who files an annual request for such notice with the city or town clerk no later than January first, and pays a reasonable fee established by such ordinance or by-law. In cases involving boundary, density or use changes within a district, notice shall be sent to any such nonresident property owner who has filed such a request with the city or town clerk and whose property lies in the district where the change is sought."

The town has to advertise the hearing twice in a local paper and conspicuously in town, notify abutters, notify neighboring Planning Boards and the regional planning commission.

There is real risk to not properly providing notice and hearing zoning changes:  after town meeting the Town Clerk submits all the bylaw and zoning bylaw changes to the State Attorney General in a packet for review, and the packet includes the hearing notices and notice dates.   If you can't show that your hard-won zoning change was properly advertised and heard first, you run the risk of receiving some bad news several months later: the Attorney General has the authority to disapprove the change.