On Wednesday, February 8, 2023, a citizens petition article entitled “Temporary Building Moratorium on Multi-Family Dwelling Units” was submitted to the Town Manager’s Office for inclusion at the Annual Town Meeting on Tuesday, May 2, 2023.

As some of you may recall, this town warrant article was suspended at the last annual town meeting due to a procedural issue, the required public hearing was not scheduled by town officials due to concerns with the original language.

The language contained in the “Temporary Building Moratorium on Multi-Family Dwelling Units” citizens petition has been revised to match another community’s moratorium that was enacted by the town and approved by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (a required review), which reads as follows with modifications specific to Millbury’s Zoning Bylaws:

To see if the Town will vote to: amend the Zoning Bylaws to add a new section, Section 53. Temporary Moratorium on Multi-Family Dwelling Units under Article 4 Special Regulations and to read as follows:

Section 53. Temporary Moratorium on Multi-Family Dwelling Units

53.1 Purpose. In recent years, the preponderance, rate and volume of multi-family permitting and construction in the Town of Millbury have proceeded at levels that substantially vary from the community’s prior experience. These changes to local development patterns may potentially have an adverse or unanticipated effect on community character and existing neighborhoods. While the Town of Millbury Zoning Bylaws does not contain sections which specifically address the creation of multi-family dwellings, there is a community need to establish thoughtful criteria for consideration and approval of multi-family dwelling units within neighborhood context and within downtown Millbury. In order for the Town to undertake comprehensive planning to formulate and adopt a temporary moratorium on the consideration and approval of multi-family proposals under the Zoning Bylaws.

53.2 Definitions. For the purposes of this section, “Multi-Family Dwelling” shall be defined as “a building with 3 or more dwelling units or 2 or more buildings on the same lot with more than 1 residential dwelling unit in each building.”

53.3 Moratorium. Notwithstanding any other provision in the Zoning Bylaw to the contrary, no special permit or site plan review approval for multi-family housing, may be issued until after November 17, 2024. The purpose of this temporary moratorium is to allow sufficient time to engage in a planning process to address the effects of such structures and uses in the Town and to enact bylaws in a manner consistent with sound land use planning goals and objectives.

Multi-family development in the town of Millbury has been a hot button topic of concern for many residents and there are a lot of polarizing and community dividing opinions on how these projects are currently handled with the town’s out-of-date, contradictory, and inadequate zoning bylaws. Additionally, there is concerns about the number of waivers and variances granted with no legitimate justification given to substantiate being in the public interest other than the developer(s) do not think our enacted zoning bylaws are applicable to them and that they know better than our town officials and the residents of Millbury who enacted the zoning bylaws through majority votes.

The purpose of this “Temporary Building Moratorium on Multi-Family Dwelling Units” is to allow public engagement on reviewing, amending, and creating new zoning bylaws that align with the official Master Plan and with the residents of Millbury’s vision for safe, appropriate, and responsible development and growth that maintains our small-town charm that attracted most to Millbury in the first place. Hundreds of registered voters throughout Millbury signed three iterations of the “Temporary Building Moratorium on Multi-Family Dwelling Units” town warrant article.