SUNDERLAND — Bylaw proposals concerning battery storage facilities and converting existing buildings into multi-family dwellings will come before voters at Friday night’s Annual Town Meeting.

Residents will decide on the 18-article warrant at Sunderland Elementary School starting at 6:30 p.m. Topping the warrant is Article 9, which will ask voters to consider amending Sunderland’s bylaws to include definitions for accessory and stand-alone battery storage facilities in the Commercial-2 (C-2) District northeast of Cranberry Pond and in the area of Long Plain Road.

If approved, the bylaw would allow large-scale, ground-mounted solar electric facilities with batteries and stand-alone battery storage facilities on up to 4 acres in the C-2 District through a special permit issued by the Planning Board, while also amending current Sunderland bylaws to prohibit accessory battery storage outside the C-2 District.

“We have a solar energy bylaw that allows for installation of large-scale solar infrastructure, but in our bylaws, we don’t mention batteries at all. ... The town has been approached by potential developers and knowing we’re not addressing it, this is our attempt to address it,” said Planning Board Chair Dana Roscoe.

The C-2 District, Roscoe added, is also where power lines run through town, which would give companies “the ability to have convenient access to the grid, and the C-2 District has the fewest housing units, so it would have the least impact on abutters.”

Several towns in the region have begun addressing battery storage facilities, as well as solar facilities, with varying levels of success. Wendell and Shutesbury both have had bylaws thrown out by the Attorney General’s Office in the past and both communities, as well as Hadley, will bring new proposals to their respective Town Meetings this year.

“We’re not alone in trying to tackle it,” Roscoe said. “It’s just a question of how much you can restrict it.”

The subsequent article asks voters to amend multifamily dwelling bylaws by allowing existing buildings with an area of more than 10,000 square feet to be converted into multi-family dwellings though a special permit issued by the Planning Board.

Roscoe said the board is bringing the proposal to Town Meeting because the revised bylaw also expands the number of dwelling units from four to eight, which would allow the town to assist the developer of the former nursing home on Old Amherst Road to convert the building into housing.

“Four units for a property that size doesn’t make sense,” Roscoe said, adding that the bylaw can “accommodate that existing property that currently is underutilized.”

On top of the zoning articles, voters will also consider a roughly $10.6 million budget for fiscal year 2025, which is a 3.6%, or $363,435, increase over the current year’s figures. The largest increases come from Sunderland Elementary School’s budget, Frontier Regional School’s assessment and the Fire Department budget, which increased by $110,097, $92,992 and $53,743, respectively.

Selectboard Chair Nathaniel Waring said “it was an expensive year for everybody” and the $275,000 capital override residents approved at last year’s election really helped keep the budget in line for the upcoming fiscal year.

“The one thing I want to spike out is how grateful I am to the town for giving faith in us last year to pass the capital override; doing that allowed us to balance the budget this year, basically,” Waring said. “If we had to come up with $300,000 of budget money for the capital projects we needed to happen, the budget would look a lot different than it does right now.”

Other articles residents will consider include $405,670 in capital projects, which will be used to buy a police cruiser, pay for the lease of two highway vehicles and the purchase of a loader, and fund Phase 1 of installing heat pumps at Sunderland Elementary School.

Voters will also be asked to vote on a citizen’s petition that would lower the municipal voting age to 16, a $25,000 match for a MassTrails grant exploring a shared-use path from the University of Massachusetts Amherst to the Whately Park and Ride, and $177,000 in Community Preservation Act funding for repairs to the Graves Memorial Library.

The full Town Meeting warrant and budget documents can be found on the town website at bit.ly/37E2UHP.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.