DEERFIELD — After the Selectboard and Planning Board endorsed the changes, Special Town Meeting voters are slated to consider revisions to the town’s bylaws regulating accessory dwelling units (ADUs) this fall in accordance with state guidelines.
Besides changing the term “accessory apartments” to “accessory dwelling units” in the bylaw, the Planning Board is proposing a few other switches. At the public hearing on the proposed changes on Monday night, Planning Board Chair Denise Mason described the shifts as not “earth-shattering.”
While the current bylaw reads that only accessory apartments within the existing structure of the primary single-family home are allowed by right, the proposed changes would instead allow by-right ADUs up to 900 square feet or half the square footage of the primary dwelling, whichever is smaller.
The new bylaw would also change the stipulations for ADUs allowed by special permit.
Under the current bylaw, accessory apartments that are attached to the primary dwelling and that involve structural changes larger than the footprint of the main dwelling, and detached ADUs that are on a permanent foundation in the same lot as the main dwelling, both require a special permit.
The new bylaw would instead allow ADUs above 900 square feet or half the primary dwelling size and below 1,200 square feet by special permit.
For another revision, Mason explained that the current bylaw requires ADUs to have at least three off-street parking spots, and the proposed bylaw only requires one additional spot for an ADU unless it falls within half a mile of a transit station.
The new bylaw would also require ADUs to have a permanent foundation, meaning that RVs parked on a field would not be considered ADUs, for example. Short-term rentals of ADUs below 30 days would also be prohibited in Deerfield.
“Between the conversations we all had to conform with Mass. General Law, and then the oversight from our attorney, I’m feeling confident in what we have,” Planning Board member Emily Gaylord said at Monday’s public hearing before she and her fellow members endorsed the changes.
Mason told the Selectboard at its July 22 meeting that the last ADU building permit that the Planning Board reviewed came in about two years ago. Given the expenses of building an ADU, such as installing a septic system for the structure as ADUs must contain “complete, independent living facilities,” Mason and Gaylord said they do not anticipate a surge in ADU building permits if voters approve the bylaw changes. Instead, Gaylord described the proposed amendments as a “step for more housing” in Deerfield.
“Governor [Maura] Healey, she understands, as we all do, that we’ve had a lack of housing in the area,” Mason said at Monday’s hearing, “and we’re just trying to make it a little easier for people.”
