GILL — A collection of amended and new bylaws will head to Annual Town Meeting on May 4 pertaining to accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and floodplain regulations, and voters will also be asked to consider a one-year moratorium on the development of commercial building-integrated energy storage systems and data centers.
The Planning Board held a public hearing on Thursday to review the draft bylaws. Attendees largely asked questions to clarify where these bylaw recommendations came from, how they were developed and what impact they may have on the town. To help support the Planning Board, the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG) has helped guide Gill in developing the language of these updated bylaws.
Regarding ADUs, changes include replacing the terms “accessory apartment” with “accessory dwelling unit (ADU),” replacing “mobile home” with “manufactured home,” and deleting the definitions of “accessory apartment” and “mobile home” and adding a definition of “manufactured home.” Additional ADU-related changes include adding a new section, Section 4, to establish the “purpose, definitions, regulations, and administration and enforcement relating to the establishment of ADUs to be built as-of-right in Gill.”
The two other changes include removing Section 15, Flood Plain Regulations, and replacing it with new language that is in compliance with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regulations, and adding a new section, Section 18, Building-Integrated Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and Data Centers. This new section seeks to establish a one-year moratorium on constructing such facilities in Gill.
ADU bylaws
Responding to a question about why these new definitions for ADUs are required, Planning Board Chair Mark Beaudry spoke to the need to bring the town’s bylaws into compliance with state law. In 2024, Gov. Maura Healey signed the Affordable Homes Act into law — a move that made the construction of ADUs, also known as “in-law apartments,” up to 900 square feet legal by right in single-family residential zones throughout the state.
“This has already been in place at the state level for a while, and if the town of Gill did nothing to create a bylaw to try to have a little bit of control relative to these,” Beaudry said, “then basically we are forced to follow the state regulation, and then we essentially have no local control over it.”
To help establish some local control, Section 4 allows for an ADU to be placed in the Riverside District by right with a maximum of 900 square feet, aligning with the maximum size allowed by right by the state. This 900-square-foot limit was kept so as not to potentially infringe on an existing open space bylaw in this section of town. In other areas of Gill, however, ADUs of up to 1,200 square feet will be allowed by right to accommodate greater accessibility, especially for seniors who want to age in place in Gill.
Another element of local control the Planning Board is proposing is to limit the ability for ADUs to serve as short-term rentals, like an Airbnb or Vrbo. Audience members showed support for this idea, with Planning Board member Tim Storrow explaining that the board doesn’t want to see investors come into the community and only build ADUs for short-term rental use, but it doesn’t restrict homeowners from using their homes for Airbnbs.
Some residents brought up that ADUs as short-term rentals could help generate revenue for the town, with Town Administrator Ray Purington clarifying that there is a local tax for short-term rentals that communities can opt into. On the other hand, resident Tupper Brown expressed that these types of rentals don’t provide much to a community in terms of value to the economy or retaining new residents.
One-year moratoriums
On top of the ADU and floodplain bylaw changes, the Planning Board is looking to get ahead of the potential development of building-integrated energy storage systems and data centers. The board proposes adopting a one-year moratorium on these energy facilities, which would start on May 4, 2026, and run through May 3, 2027, contingent upon adoption at Annual Town Meeting.
The bylaw states that these moratoriums would be designed to give the Planning Board time between now and next Annual Town Meeting to “study, consider and adopt zoning regulations governing the siting, permitting, construction, installation, operation and maintenance of building-integrated energy storage systems (BESS) and data centers.”
The full draft of the bylaw amendments are available at gillmass.org/d/43742/Planning-Board-HearingMeeting.