WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The owner of Sweetwood Independent Living Community plans to take another try at obtaining a zoning change to allow conventional apartments at the South Williamstown facility.

 

This time, CareOne plans to have the current Sweetwood residents on its side.

 

Attorney Jeffrey Grandchamp appeared before the Planning Board last week to inform it that Sweetwood's proprietor hopes to bring a different type of zoning request to May's annual town meeting.

 

Instead of a two-step approach that would have rezoned the Sweetwood property and expanding the uses in the new zone, Sweetwood is aiming for an overlay district to cover the assisted-living site.

 

Last year, when CareOne first came to the town with a landowner's petition to alter Sweetwood's zoning, current residents made the trip to Town Hall to voice their objection to the plan.

 

This year, Grandchamp said the residents are more amenable but there still are details that need to be worked out before the town meeting warrant article is ready to share publicly.

 

"I don't have exact language for you," Grandchamp said at the Planning Board's Jan. 9 meeting. "We are working with the residents to make sure we have language they would approve. They've approved generally what I've discussed with you, but there's a lot of nuance. There are a lot of constituencies, and we want to make sure residents are comfortable with how it's going to work both from a zoning perspective and practically with their lives."

 

In the past, CareOne explained that Sweetwood is operating at about half capacity. And in order to make the "independent living" facility viable, the New Jersey company wants to put some of the apartment units on the open market. The problem is that Sweetwood operates under a special permit that specifically allows an "assisted living residence" under the town's bylaw.

 

Residents of the facility have told the Planning Board that, among other things, they were concerned that a transition to make Sweetwood a regular apartment house would be the beginning of the end to the services on which they rely.

 

Grandchamp, in his first appearance before he board on the issue, said last week that CareOne is working on a concurrent agreement with residents to address their concerns before the zoning change is made.

 

"Some of [the concerns] aren't suitable for a zoning bylaw, like if there are non-traditional Sweetwood residents living there, can they use the laundry machines," Grandchamp said. "Those aren't things typically handled by a zoning bylaw.

 

"But they are things we can handle through a contract. The idea being the residents would have two measures of protection. One, we would have to live within the restrictions of the special permit. And our agreement with them may require us to ask for specific limitations on what we can do with the special permit. The second protection would be a formal legal contract they can enforce."

 

Under the plan Grandchamp laid out last Tuesday, the overlay district would allow use of the facility as both an assisted-living and multi-family living facility by special permit issued from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

 

The Planning Board has no jurisdiction over any warrant article a landowner brings directly to town meeting. But Grandchamp noted last week that without the body's positive recommendation to the meeting, its likelihood of passage in May was diminished.

 

Board member Kenneth Kuttner asked Community Development Director Andrew Groff whether the proposal from CareOne might raise concerns about "spot zoning."

 

"It's not spot zoning if there's something unique about the property," Groff said, pointing to other overlay districts the town has created at Cable Mills on Water Street and the Waubeeka Golf Links property.

 

Roger Lawrence asked Grandchamp to notify the Planning Board about meetings of Sweetwood's residents group so board members can attend for themselves and gauge the level of support for the proposal.

 

Grandchamp said he would and told the board he expects to be back at its Feb. 13  meeting with more information about the warrant article.

 

The Planning Board also discussed the final decisions it needed to make on a proposed "Cottage Housing" bylaw amendment for May's town meeting.

 

The board has spent much of the year developing the bylaw, which would, for the first time, allow in the town's General Residence district development of a "collection of densely spaced small single-family or duplex structures, arranged around a common area or areas."

 

Following its Feb. 13 meeting, the Planning Board intends to send the warrant article to the Select Board for inclusion on the town meeting warrant. That then will trigger a public hearing required by statute on the proposal, which the board has planned for March 12 — potentially continuing to March 26.

 

After any minor or technical changes to the proposed bylaw in March, it would go on the town meeting warrant, which the Select Board is scheduled to seal on April 8.

 

In other business, the Planning Board discussed how to move forward in light of a meeting with the Select Board one night earlier on the notion of a town bylaw on short-term rental units.

 

The planners discussed continued outreach to members of the Select Board to encourage progress on the issue. Chair Peter Beck noted that the bylaw from Great Barrington would be a good model to address both the Planning Board's intent in pursuing a bylaw and concerns raised that such local regulation might be too restrictive.

 

"‘[The Great Barrington bylaw] allows for unlimited days for [accessory dwelling units], unlimited days for bedrooms, and if you're going to rent the entire [residence], it's 150 days — more than enough for a side business but still less than a full business would want to do," Beck said. "The garage apartment we were hearing about would have unlimited days.

 

"It's generous. It should allow anyone who is doing it in town right now to continue what they're doing. But it would disallow, or at least disincentivize, the idea of taking a primary dwelling unit and making it a permanent Airbnb."