Politics & Government
Special Town Meeting: Snow Removal, A Moratorium and Grammar on the Floor Tonight
Homeowners snow removal, affordable housing calculations and citizens seeking to halt doubling (or tripling) down on single family housing lots are in the warrant.
There is a little for every representative at tonight's Special Town Meeting within Belmont's annual 2013 Town Meeting taking place at Belmont High School's auditorium beginning at 7 p.m.
There will be an article that will require residential homeowners to put on their boots and take out their shovels to remove any snow on the sidewalk outside their houses. Sponsored by Selectman Ralph Jones, it comes before Town Meeting with the history of past proposed snow-shoveling articles going down to defeat.
The approximately 300 Town Meeting reps will also consider Belmont's inclusionary housing by-law that installs a new way of calculating affordable housing in new developments.
Find out what's happening in Belmontfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
On the housing front, a citizen's petition – the only one that will come up this Town Meeting – sponsored by Judith Sarno and Raffi Manjikian will ask the representatives to support a one-year moritorium on taking down single-family homes to build two-or-more unit housing on the site. The supporters want the Planning Board to take the year to create a new zoning by-law protecting neighborhoods from over-sized housing.
And for all those Town Meeting members who are grammarians, amendments to the usually staid recodification articles by Precinct 6 Representative Ed Kazanjian who wishes to codify "chairman" (rather than "chairperson" or "chair") and spelling out numbers when they begin sentences or when rounded out over 100.
Find out what's happening in Belmontfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Below is the articles being presented tonight:
List of Proposed Warrant Articles Article 1 Reports Article 2 Repeals Article 3 Reorganize and renumber Article 4 General recodification Article 5 Recodification of Chapter 10 Article 6 Recodification of Chapter 20 Article 7 Recodification of Chapter 30 Article 8 Recodification of Chapter 40 Article 9 Recodification of Chapter 60 Article 10 Amend new Stormwater Management By-Law Article 11 New By-Law: Residential Snow Removal Article 12 Appropriation: Insurance proceeds Article 13 Appropriation: BAN Premiums Article 14 Amend the fiscal year 2013 budget (if needed) Article 15 Easement: Trapelo Road Article 16 Authorization to transfer property with the Belmont Muncipal Light Article 17 Amend Zoning By-Law: Inclusionary Housing Article 18 Citizen Petition: Demolition MoratoriumYou can see a detailed warrant here or by viewing the pdf file on this Web page.
Town Clerk Ellen Cushman has received numerous amendments to the articles being presented:
Article 4: General Recodification: Amendments (1 and 2) by Edward Kazanjian, Precinct 6 Town Meeting Member.
Article 10: Stormwater Management & Erosion Control General By-Law: Amendment by By-Law Review Committee
Article 11: Residential Snow Removal By-Law: Amendment by Robert McGaw, Precinct 1 Town Meeting Member.
Article 17: Inclusionary Housing (Zoning Bylaw): Amendment by the Planning Board.
Article 18: Citizen Petition – Demolition Moratorium (Zoning Bylaw): Amendment by Raffi Manjikian and Judith Ananian Sarno.
You can see what's in the amendments here
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