GREENFIELD — The City Council will consider an individual petition to put its vote concerning the French King overlay district on the November ballot during its Sept. 18 meeting.
On Aug. 17, sprawlbuster Al Norman submitted an individual petition urging the City Council to put its March 20 zoning vote on the November ballot. His petition was filed under section 7-6A of the Greenfield charter four days before the August City Council meeting.
City Clerk Kathy Scott said this is the first individual petition filed under charter section 7-6A since the charter was adopted in 2003.
In the committee chairs meeting on Tuesday, City Council President Karen “Rudy” Renaud put the petition on the agenda for the Sept. 18 meeting, rather than sending it to a subcommittee.
“The council will give the petition its full consideration and will take a vote in the Sept. 18 meeting,” Renaud said in a Wednesday interview. “It only got moved to the September meeting because it wasn’t submitted in time for the August meeting.”
Section 7-6A of the Greenfield charter indicates the council shall receive a petition signed by one or more voters and “take such action in regard to each such petition as may be deemed necessary and advisable.”
For a question to be put on the ballot, it must be submitted in its final form 35 days prior to the election, according to Scott.
Norman said he sees the issue of the “great compromise” in the City Council’s vote as coming full circle.
“The City Council voted on the French King zoning and Major Development Review and the library together in that March 20 meeting, then there was a library petition filed and it’s on the ballot,” Norman said. “Now they should put the zoning on the ballot, too. There’s a symmetry, a fairness here. They never should have been joined.”
Scott said it is unclear whether the petition’s proposed ballot question would be subject to Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40A, which outlines the process in which zoning amendments can be initiated and considered through all of its stages.
Scott said, to her knowledge, any zoning change must be reviewed by the Planning Board.
Under Chapter 40A Section 5 of state law, it states, “The board of selectmen or city council shall within fourteen days of receipt of such zoning ordinance or bylaw submit it to the planning board for review. No zoning ordinance or bylaw or amendment thereto shall be adopted until after the planning board in a city or town, and the city council or a committee designated or appointed for the purpose by said council has each held a public hearing thereon, together or separately, at which interested persons shall be given an opportunity to be heard.”
Norman said the decision to put the French King zoning overlay and Major Development Review on the ballot is in the hands of the City Council now.
“They are either going to put it on the ballot or they’re not,” Norman said. “If they don’t put it on the ballot on the 18th, it won’t go on at all. It’ll be too late to educate the public.”
Norman filed a civil complaint in Franklin County Superior Court in May, requesting the court do two things: correct an error in the charter or for the city to hold public hearings to pass a new measure that clarifies the citizen initiative and referendum process; and to allow the referendum petition he put forward challenging the March 20 City Council zoning votes to proceed.
Norman has since said he would withdraw the suit if the zoning question was put on the ballot.
Reach Melina Bourdeau at 413-772-0261, ext. 263 or mbourdeau@recorder.com.