Simple Language Could Bring Significant Change to Hamilton Zoning Bylaw

The evening that the Hamilton Board of Selectmen voted to move the fall special town meeting to early November, it also opened the warrant for that meeting and voted to accept text of a proposed warrant article that had already been submitted.

The warrant article is just one sentence long, but, if approved, it would dramatically change the town’s existing zoning bylaw.

The article reads:

SECTION V. USE REGULATIONS, B. Permitted Uses 1. - Amend by adding to the existing text (at the end of the current language) the following:

“Mixed Use, defined as two or more uses permitted as a matter of right on a single parcel as a part of a single development plan. This use requires Site Plan Review; see section VI.H.”

Currently, Hamilton’s zoning bylaw allows only one use per parcel. The change would allow, for instance, commercial shops on the first floor of a building and some type of residential housing to be located upstairs in the same building.

Hamilton’s 2015 special town meeting will take place Saturday, Nov. 7 at 9 a.m. at Winthrop Elementary.