Area Plan Implementation Teams
Grey Team – Housing
Team Focus
Implementing the Greater Tom Nevers Area Plan with initiatives to
head-off secondary-dwelling over-development through a win-win program
that provides potential tax incentives to property-owners who
voluntarily place restrictive covenants on their rights to add
secondary-dwellings. Also, minimizing zoning violations through improved
ways to report potential violations and track their enforcement.
Action Steps to be Taken
1. Secondary Dwellings
- Explore the concept of restricting secondary development rights on a
voluntary basis through the use of a covenant with various conservation
agencies, consistent with the 2006 ballot initiative, and determine the
process to value such a "gifted" covenant.
- Gather relevant Internal Revenue Service information about deducting
the value of development rights and share the information with other
interested neighborhoods.
2. Zoning Enforcement
- Discuss the Tom Nevers perception of the problem with responsible Town
employees to see what suggestions they have.
- Investigate establishing a local "clearing house" to report and track
reported zoning violations.
Progress to Date
The current slow-downs in the real estate market and in the construction
industry abate, at least temporarily, our secondary-dwelling
over-development concerns. As a result, first priority is being
given to our focus on minimizing housing zoning violations—particularly
occupancy overcrowding in employer-owned and rental housing and
violations in the form of adding un-permitted structures that are
potentially out of compliance with zoning regulations.Using the
Town’s existing Zoning bylaws as its basis, an easy-to-understand
"Zoning Guidelines for Residential Properties in Tom Nevers" will be
drafted, reviewed with the Town’s Zoning Compliance Officer for
accuracy, and then posted on our Tom Nevers website.
To resolve problems, a formal complaint process will be developed to let
abutters alert the Grey Team to a potential violation. If the Grey
Team concurs, the TNCA board will be asked to attempt to resolve the
problem with the property-owner but failing that, issue an official
complaint to the Zoning Department. Throughout the entire process,
the complaining abutter will be kept informed of the status.
Grey Team Members
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