B&B Ordinance Begins to take Shape

-By Joseph Domelowicz

For the Transcript

The Winthrop Planning Board took another step Monday night, toward bringing a Bed and Breakfast ordinance to the Town Council this spring.

According to Planning Board Chairman Richard Dimes, Monday’s meeting was a working session at which the Planning Board dissected and worked on the draft Bed and Breakfast article that member Peter Roche has written for the town.

“The Building Inspector was present at the meeting and we basically kicked around the article, going through it paragraph by paragraph trying to make sure it accomplishes what it sets out to do,” said Dimes.

“It was a very good article and there really wasn’t anything negative about the meeting last night, I think most of the comments on the draft were really more about what happens, from a practical standpoint, when a home is turned into a bed and breakfast,” added Dimes. “There were no drastic changes at all last night

Dimes said he expects the Board will be ready to hold a public hearing on the proposed new bye-law in March, once the draft is finalized by the board’s legal counsel.

“The way I see the process going from here is that we’ll finalize the draft with the help of our legal counsel and submit it to the (Town) Council, then they’ll send it back to us for a public hearing and we’ll report back to them on the public hearing.”