Erving Planning Board Delays Vote on Multi-Unit Zoning, Seeks More Research

ERVING -- December 16, 2021, Erving Planning Board declines to vote on multi-unit zoning overhaul, asks for more time. The board held a public hearing December 16 on Select Board-requested amendments that would remove a four-unit cap from the town's multi-unit dwelling definition and allow two-unit dwellings by right in Central Village and Village Residential zones, but members said they needed more time to study comparable communities before acting on the use-table changes. Assistant Town Planner Brian warned that Erving sits well below the state's informal 10 percent affordable-housing threshold and that inaction could invite developers to seek Chapter 40B relief, bypassing local zoning altogether; preliminary responses to the town's request-for-proposals for the IP Mill site had already suggested interest in projects of roughly 50 units. The board unanimously approved the definition language change in principle and agreed to relay that position to the Select Board, with a final use-table vote expected at the January 2022 meeting. Separately, the board unanimously approved relocation of a locked solar-field access gate on French King Highway and an approval-not-required boundary adjustment for a local property.