DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board last week approved an amended application for Berkshire Regional Planning Commission's District Local Technical Assistance Program (DLTA).

 

If accepted, the DLTA grant would provide the town technical assistance in planning for housing and growth in an effort to address housing needs within the community. BRPC would provide the assistance at no cost to the community. 

 

The commission gets money from the state for the DLTA program. The annual programs can have various kinds of focuses and this year is focusing on housing, Town Manager Thomas Hutcheson said. 

 

"The desired results, as we say, is first having the town get more comfortable with adding housing and choosing the zoning to allow for more diverse housing," he said. 

 

The assistance also would include assessing "what zoning and housing options would be the most palatable to the residents of Dalton." 

 

The Planning Board would look into the current zoning bylaws and determine the town's options for changing the bylaws to allow for sustainable housing development. Those options would then be drafted into zoning amendments, public hearings will be held, and then they would be brought to town meeting for approval. 

 

Hutcheson noted that the town's master plan identified housing as one of its priority needs in the community. One of the incomplete steps in the plan was to review the zoning bylaws "to ensure they allow for the development of a range of housing." 

 

The board approved submitting an amended version of the application 3-1 following debate, with one member absent.

 

Select Board member Marc Strout voted against the item and called to table the decision till its next meeting. The motion to table was shot down by the remaining members due to the impending deadline on Friday. 

 

Prior to the amendment, the proposal included "focusing on, but not limited to, 120 First St.," the old Dalton High property, which has been used for various recreational events and activities including Dalton Day. 

 

This has become a hot topic following the board's recent discussion on possible options for affordable housing on the parcel. 

 

The inclusion of the parcel in the application was nixed to clarify the town's efforts. 

 

Despite amending the application to not include the parcel, Strout was still adamantly against approving it as the topic of housing was not included in the agenda. 

 

The item was listed on the agenda as "Recommendation for Direct Local Technical Assistance funding."

 

"The specifically referenced 120 First St., I can't support anything like that. The residents of the town voted to spend a million dollars to rip that school down knowing and being told that there were going to be single-family lots put in that area. That is what was debated and discussed repeatedly," Strout said. 

 

Getting technical assistance from BRPC will not cost the town money and does not commit the town to anything, Vice Chair Daniel Esko said. 

 

"With the goal of analyzing Dalton's current housing and analyzing the current zoning laws to see where we could potentially make improvements or changes to help create more housing sustainably in our town, I don't really see a downside to getting the technical assistance," Esko said. "It's not committing the town of Dalton to doing anything. At the end of the day, the voters decide [what happens] at town meetings. 

 

"This is merely a proposal for direct local technical assistance from the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission to help us. We can change the proposal if we think that's the issue." 

 

Changing the proposal is just beating around the bush, Strout said.

 

"I understand your concerns, but I still can't see a downside. It's not committing the town to making any changes to zoning by any means. It's analyzing and doing research and providing technical assistance," Esko said. 

 

Playing devil's advocate, Chair Joe Diver said at the time that the school was voted to be demolished; there have been issues with housing in the county across different demographics. 

 

"One of those demographics is really our senior population and as it stands today, with the zoning bylaws, as I understand it, we would not be able to put in smaller homes for seniors or things of that nature because our bylaws do not allow it and we have no option but to do the single-family lots as decided back in 2015," Diver said. 

 

This path, he said, will not allow them to pause and look at different strategies that "address housing needs, but still probably meet the goal objective of the single-family homes, it's just a different style single family home." 

 

Not considering all the options would limit the town to single-family homes, which is OK, Diver continued, but these would be larger footprint homes that would cost more. The focus should be on planning and zoning bylaws, he continued.

 

"For example, some families have big open fields of land, maybe they wanted to go and they would be limited to develop on something like that but they would be limited to develop based on the bylaws today," Diver said. 

 

"But if they had different options, maybe they want to develop differently. It's not a bad exploration. It's not going to change the decisions of the past." 

 

Residents can receive updates on the zoning bylaw exploration during Planning Board meetings and can find updates on the future of 120 First St. during Select Board meetings. Agendas can be found on the town website.