Council Committee Considers Changes to Town Zoning Board

By Adam Swift

The Town Council’s rules and ordinance subcommittee supports a proposal to increase the size of the Zoning Board of Appeals, but is waiting for more feedback from the ZBA before making a formal recommendation to the full council to move forward with the changes.

Last month, Council President James Letterie introduced a motion seeking to increase the size of the Zoning Board of Appeals from six to seven members to make it easier to vote on appeals and conduct business.

This would allow the board to have five members on a hearing with four votes needed to approve an appeal, giving it more flexibility, according to Letterie.

“The first motion we discussed would increase the size of the board of appeals and it would require us to appoint additional members to that,” said Council Vice President Stephen Ruggiero, who chairs the rules and ordinance subcommittee. “The second motion coupled with that would adopt Mass General Law Chapter 39, Section 23, which would allow the associate members of the board of appeals to step in and vote for a regular member of the board of appeals if that person were to be absent on the day of a vote.”

The associate member could not have missed more than one meeting during the hearing process, and would have to attest in writing that they were aware of all the facts and provisions of the relevant case.

“In our opinion, this would make for a more efficient process … and it would create a more efficient government,” said Ruggiero. “The general consensus is that we were in favor of these; we had a few follow up questions we sent to (the city solicitor) which we received answers on. I think our concerns were clarified, but we decided to hold these until our next council meeting just because we haven’t heard back from members of the board of appeals directly and we want to make sure we give them ample time to consider these.”

In other business on Tuesday night, Town Manager Tony Marino said repairs to the commuter ferry are almost complete. He also verified that there will be a stop along the ferry route this season at the Hyatt Hotel at Logan Airport.

“That should help some of our residents who work at the airport,” said Marino.

In addition, Marino said the Revere Street reconstruction project is still on track to go out to bid this June, with construction to begin next spring or summer.