Groton Open Space Association

Discussion Of KKC Proposals Deepens At Zoning Commission

GROTON — The Zoning Commission and the Office of Planning and Development Services are digging deeper into proposals for sweeping revisions of Groton’s zoning rules.

At the July 1, 2009, commission meeting, the OPDS presented the commission with sample figures designed to show how alterations in “protection levels” could affect the number of units allowed on tracts of land.

Protection levels are a key component of changes proposed by Kendig Keast Collaborative, a Midwest consulting firm hired by the town to help rewrite land-use rules. KKC formulas would protect certain percentages of various natural features of a proposed building area. Such features include water bodies, wetlands, woodlands, steep slopes, and moderate slopes. A steep slope is at least 25% and a moderate slope is 15-24.9%.

Under the KKC concept, the amount of protected acreage would be subtracted from total acreage of a tract, and the remainder would provide the basis for calculating the number of units that could be built. The formulas would allow flexibility as to where and in what form developers could build.

A simplified example involving a 100-acre tract would be:

100 total acres minus 40 “protected” acres = 60 buildable acres. If the tract were zoned for half-acre housing (or a “yield” of about 2 units per acre), then 120 units would be allowed. (The per-acre yield — 2 units in this simplified example — probably will be a matter for further discussion.)

Matthew Davis, planning manager, handed out a set of yield figures that show the impact of raising protection levels for moderate slopes outside sewer avoidance areas to 65% from the 0% shown in examples passed out at a joint Zoning-Planning workshop March 4. For the Groton Lenders LLC Hazelnut Hill property, also known as the Sheep Farm, the 65-point percentage change reduced the potential yield by 10 units to 69 from 79 shown March 4.

The reduced figure of 69 units compares with some 33 units of single-family housing that had won regulatory approval before developer Otto Paparazzo sold the property to Groton Lenders. Some members of the commission have asked the OPDS for information on how the KKC formulas could affect future population/buildout, but the OPDS has turned the questions aside as being outside the field of regulation change.

Though the KKC regulations do not affect maximum theoretical yields on a flat and otherwise featureless tract, they do appear to allow significantly greater yields on feature-filled land than would single-family housing. The Groton Lenders case is an example. That suggests that theoretical single-family yields could be become one measuring stick used in assessing yields of plans laid out under proposed KKC rules.

At the July 1 meeting, two members, Susan Sutherland and Chairman Stephen Hudecek, argued that wetlands buffers ought to be included as protected areas when calculating allowable numbers of lots. Planning Director Michael J. Murphy said protection of areas around wetlands is a matter for the Inland Wetlands Agency and shouldn’t figure into density calculations. Mr. Hudecek replied that the buffers are shown on zoning maps and, desirably, would reduce density if allowed into the calculation as protected area–i.e. excluded from the calculation of total buildable acres.

Ms. Sutherland asked for an inventory of wetland buffer acreage on the Wolfebrook property, one of four tracts used to examine potential KKC impacts. Mr. Davis asked Ms. Sutherland, “How is this information useful?” Member Robert O’Neill agreed, saying that building setbacks might as well be included as wetlands buffers. “That’s where you can’t put buildings either,” he said.

Member Richard Haviland said, “Our job is not wetlands.” Member Douglas Brandt also appeared to dismiss the idea, saying, “This is just a maximum yield calculation.”

In material passed out by KKC at a public meeting September 28, 2008, “riparian and wetland buffers” were proposed for “Conceptual Resource Protection Standards” of 70% to 90%, depending on the zoning district involved.