(Deerfield, MA) Update: At Monday’s town meeting in Deerfield, residents voted to approve amendments to accessory apartment bylaws, easing regulations. The bylaws allow for an apartment up to 900 square feet and change the resident requirement from a caregiver of the primary resident to allowing anyone to be the tenant of the accessory dwelling. Also voted on at the meeting was the creation of a new planning and economic development coordinator to work on securing grants for the town and coordinating for state and town projects.
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04/24/23 Deerfield’s Annual Town Meeting will be held tonight at 7 p.m. in the Frontier Regional School Auditorium at 113 North Main Street. A question and answer session for community members will be held at 6 p.m. with the Select Board at Town Hall.
This year’s town meeting warrant includes nineteen articles, the last of which is to see if the town will vote to amend the Deerfield Zoning Bylaws as they pertain to accessory apartment guidelines. An accessory apartment is “a self-contained housing unit, inclusive of sleeping, cooking and sanitary facilities on the same lot as a principal dwelling, subject to otherwise applicable dimensional and parking requirements” and is less than 900 square feet, with a separate entrance. The bylaws would also include special permitting procedure and regulations.
Also on the warrant is to see if the town will vote to appropriate $100,000 to replace the tennis courts at Frontier Regional High School and another article would establish a Capital Stabilization Fund for the school. In order to use funds from Capital Stabilization, a 2/3 vote from school committee would be needed.
On Monday, May 1st voting will be open at the Deerfield Town Offices at 8 Conway Street to vote on: one Selectboard member (3 years), one assessor (3 years), a constable (3 years), two school committee members (3 years), a moderator (3 years), a library trustee, a Planning Board member (2 years), two Planning Board members (3 years), an Elector Under Oliver Smith Will (1 year), and a Frontier Regional School Committee Member (3 years).