ERVING — Four of five warrant articles passed at a swift Special Town Meeting on Wednesday night, with just one item — a series of zoning bylaw amendments — inspiring deliberation.
Articles 1, 2, 3 and 5 were approved by the 34 voters in attendance for the roughly half-hour meeting. Article 4, the only one that was not approved, was passed over unanimously at the suggestion of Selectboard Chair Jacob Smith, who explained that the associated Church Street Bridge right-of-way plans have not yet been prepared.
However, the majority of discussion sought to increase the specificity of Article 5, a proposal to amend and recodify Erving’s zoning bylaws that eventually passed by majority.
Deliberation began when resident Dan Hammock expressed concern relative to a portion of the bylaws regulating livestock. This section, numbered 3.1.2 and titled “Use Regulation Schedule,” dictates that the Selectboard can administer special permits to properties less than 5 acres in size, as well as to properties less than 2 acres in size producing more than $1,000 in sales, for “the raising or keeping of livestock, including poultry, horses or cows.” Larger lots do not require a special permit to own livestock.
Hammock reasoned that species of livestock are “vastly different” in terms of their attributes and pricing, and should be regulated as such. Specifically, he advocated for the Planning Board to revisit the section and define a specific limitation on poultry.
“I’d like some clarification on this because a cow and a horse are way different than a chicken,” he said. “It’ll cost you $26 for half a dozen chickens at Tractor Supply, and a horse and a cow are kind of a different issue. What I’d like to see is this whole section removed and brought back at another date.”
He also argued that the section should be refined to specifically mention pigs and peacocks, which can be nuisances due to odor or sound.
“Pigs, pardon me, stink. … If you’ve ever heard a peacock — it’s not listed here — but they sound like something out of Jurassic Park,” Hammock said. “Now, I’m told that there’s an opinion that since it says livestock, that’s kind of included, but when you specifically say ‘horses, cows, poultry’ but you don’t say something else, somebody could easily come to the Zoning Board and say, ‘Well, it’s not there.’”
Jacquelyn Boyden, principal assessor and Planning Board chair, argued that these changes would be unnecessary, citing “a long discussion about this with an attorney.”
“Now, your concern that we’re just singling out poultry, horses or cows, it’s not that,” Boyden refuted. “We got into this and [addressed with an attorney whether] this needs to be more specific and we were told that we did not. This was just … giving some examples.”
Hammock later made a motion to amend Article 5 to exclude poultry in the bylaw. The amendment was voted down, 12-15. The article was then approved nearly unanimously, receiving just one “no” vote.
Other approved articles involved transferring $18,000 from the Recreation Revolving Account to be used for general maintenance of parks; appropriating $51,000 for the construction phase of a water tank mixing project that will help prevent bacteria formation; and rescinding the borrowing of $125,000 to develop the town’s Lead Service Line Inventory and Replacement Plan, which will instead be paid for using a forgivable loan from the state.
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.