Attorney General approves zoom meeting, affordable housing bylaws

Feb 9, 2022

Most municipal boards in Wareham will now be required to allow residents to view and participate in their meetings remotely, thanks to the Attorney General’s approval of a bylaw passed at last fall’s town meeting.

Attorney General Maura Healey also approved the affordable housing bylaw passed at the Spring 2021 Town Meeting, intended to facilitate the creation of affordable homes and single apartments. However, that law will need to be tweaked to ensure that such units are counted by the state as part of the town’s affordable housing stock.

The Attorney General approved all but one section of a bylaw requiring remote access to both watch and participate in most municipal board meetings. 

She didn’t approve the section of the bylaw that would ban boards from restricting citizens’ participation in virtual meetings. The provision would, according to the state, unlawfully take away the boards’ authority to control public comment. 

The new bylaw was submitted as a citizens’ petition. 

“We’re limiting the amount of people who can participate if we don’t continue with Zoom or hybrid meetings,” said Jody Santagate, the article’s lead petitioner. 

Santagate said there are many people who can’t make it to in-person night meetings: Those who can’t or don’t drive, especially at night; those caring for children or older family members; people in assisted living homes, etc. 

The Attorney General also approved an affordable housing bylaw, originally submitted as a citizens’ petition by former Select Board member Brenda Eckstrom. 

The bylaw aims to increase the town’s stock of affordable housing through deed-restricted individual homes and apartments, rather than large 40B developments. While the bylaw was approved, it seems the law may need to be tweaked to ensure that units created are included in the town’s affordable housing stock, officials said at the Feb. 8 Select Board meeting.. 

When 10 percent of the town’s housing stock are recognized as affordable by the state, the town will have more authority to deny large 40B developments.

Town Planner Ken Buckland has been in touch with the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development to figure out what needs to be done to change the law so such units would be approved. Officials are working to determine what changes need to be made and aim to bring an updated version to the April 25 Town Meeting for approval.

The bylaw has two parts. One reduces the minimum lot size in areas of town where the standard lot is already small if the home to be built has an affordability deed restriction. That will allow those who own double or triple lots in many areas of town to subdivide their land and sell the lot, or subdivide and build a home to sell or rent. 

The second part of the bylaw creates a path for residents to add apartments to the affordable housing roster through building apartments as additions to their homes, renting out existing “in-law” apartments, or bringing existing illegal apartments up to code so they can be rented out affordably. All such apartments would need to have an affordability deed restriction.

The Attorney General also approved an article tweaking the approved uses of the Tremont Nail Factory Building and Grounds Fund and one that reduces the Wareham Affordable Housing Trust’s quorum from four members to three members.