Planning officials are seeking public input on potential bylaw amendments to bring Belmont into compliance with a new state law before an upcoming special Town Meeting.
The new law, signed by Gov. Maura Healey in August as part of the $5.1 billion housing bond bill, allows accessory dwelling units — commonly referred to as ADUs — by right. They can stand alone or be attached to an existing dwelling. The new law prohibits owner-occupancy requirements and “unreasonably restricting” the creation or rental of an ADU that is not being used as a short-term rental.
According to the state, the new law aims to jumpstart housing production and make it easier for families to find affordable places to live.
In Belmont, accessory dwelling units are currently only allowed by special permit and must be in historic accessory buildings, such as a carriage house, according to Planning Board member Carol Berberian. However, those restrictions will no longer be enforceable when the law goes into effect next month.
“After Feb. 2, if someone comes to the building department in Belmont, with a permit application for an accessory dwelling unit that is consistent with the new laws, that application should be generally approved by the Town of Belmont, even though it will not be in compliance with our bylaw.”
To her knowledge, just two projects have gone through the special permitting process in Belmont.
“Like many other towns, we have accessory dwelling units in existence that were either in place before the bylaw was in place or just have not been permitted,” Berberian said.
Other requirements in the new state law include having no restrictions on whether the primary unit or the accessory dwelling unit is owner-occupied; in other words, both can be rented. The town also cannot require more than one parking space for the accessory unit, nor can it require a parking space for any property located within half a mile of a transit stop.
The town is, however, protected in the sense that underlying zoning — such as setback requirements and linear and dimensional requirements — remains in place. Belmont planning officials are awaiting further guidance from the state, which only recently finished its public hearing process, regarding changes the town may make to such design requirements if it chooses to do so.
“We do have some requirements from the state — that’s our baseline,” she said. “Some of those are that the accessory dwelling unit cannot be larger than 900 square feet of gross floor area or half the gross floor area of the primary dwelling.”
A public hearing is scheduled by the Planning Board for Tuesday, Jan. 28, at the Belmont Gallery of Art in the Homer Building. The meeting will be both in-person and on Zoom; the Zoom link can be found online at belmont-ma.gov (under “Events” on the homepage). Following the public hearing process, which began on Jan. 7 and was continued to Jan. 14 and subsequently to Jan. 28, Town Meeting will vote on whether to accept the zoning at a special Town Meeting.
Originally scheduled to begin on Feb. 10, town officials are discussing moving the special Town Meeting to a later date to allow time to include the bylaw amendments in the warrant.
“The bulk of this is looking at amending our bylaw to be in compliance with the state law,” Berberian said. “The challenge we have is that the majority of lots in Belmont are considered non-conforming, so trying to make a zoning change that applies for individual zoning districts without looking at what the individual non-conformities of those lots are is challenging in the short time frame we have.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct the type of outbuilding where an ADU can be built.