Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Truro are remote. Go to truro-ma.gov and click on the meeting you want to watch. The agenda includes instructions on how to join.
Friday, July 28
- Local Comprehensive Plan Committee, 11 a.m., Public Library
Tuesday, Aug. 1
- One Cape Summit, 7:30 a.m., Wequassett Resort
- Board of Health, 4 p.m.
- Select Board with Board of Health, 4:30 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Warrant Is Open
The select board voted to open the warrant for a special town meeting on July 21. It will stay open until Aug. 10 at 4 p.m.
For the next two weeks, voters can submit petitioned articles using a form available online. April’s town meeting saw citizen petitions on topics ranging from child care to a dog leash law to zoning.
Paperwork for the Oct. 21 town meeting is currently being handled by Town Accountant Trudi Brazil, who was sworn in as acting town clerk on July 7, according to Town Manager Darrin Tangeman.
Duplexes, Again
The planning board discussed two possible town meeting articles on July 19. Both the duplex bylaw amendment and house size limit articles appeared on the warrant in April but the board withdrew them. Chair Anne Greenbaum told the Independent then that, based on feedback from the public, the board planned to revise the duplex article in time for a fall town meeting.
The change would allow duplexes to be constructed by right instead of requiring a special permit from the zoning board of appeals. Greenbaum said that revisions have served “to align it with the ADU bylaw in a number of areas, as well as to clarify the occupancy requirements.”
In the current draft, at least one of the duplex units must have a 12-month lease. The other unit must be either owner-occupied or also carry a 12-month lease.
The board discussed an article, proposed by Darrell Shedd, to eliminate the special permit that allows for 1,000-square-foot extensions of the total gross floor area limit of 3,600 square feet.
Shedd, a member of the ZBA, said that “month after month requests come through our board for an additional 1,000 square feet, and they’re pretty routinely granted. I think this goes against what the majority of the town felt they were voting on when they were limiting house size to 3,600 square feet.”
Greenbaum described the special permit as a “safety valve” to help the gross floor area limit pass at town meeting. She worried that proposing an amendment to the special permit area “also opens the door to somebody amending the size at town meeting.”
The board decided not to move forward with the house size limit article and will consider it again in the spring. It plans to hold a work session to discuss warrant articles on Aug. 2. —Sophie Mann-Shafir
