Hubbardston starts e‑codification review; vendor flags 184 items for bylaw clean‑up

The Town of Hubbardston Planning Board opened a multi‑meeting effort to respond to vendor questions after the town’s bylaws were digitized and reviewed.

Planner Leanne told the board the vendor had put the general and zoning bylaws into an e‑platform, reviewed them, and returned 184 questions for the town to resolve; she said 90 of those questions involve the zoning bylaws and are the board’s responsibility. Leanne said she must answer the vendor’s questions by the end of May and that the vendor will then prepare a consolidated bylaw to bring to a future town meeting, likely in 2027.

Alec walked the board through a draft table of uses designed to convert lengthy written use descriptions into a compact, footnote‑driven table. He described how entries marked “yes” would allow a use by right, while PB indicates a special permit, SPR indicates site plan review and ECIA denotes an environmental and community impact analysis. Alec warned that, because the table reformats rather than substantively changes uses, the attorney general’s office may still scrutinize the filing and make edits.

Board members agreed the conversion is largely formatting work but will require review on items that touch the state’s DO/Dober amendment protections for daycare and similar uses; they suggested forming a subcommittee to work through questions over multiple meetings and asked staff to circulate the next draft after members submit notes within roughly a week.

No bylaw was adopted at the meeting. The board directed members to submit comments to Leanne by the requested deadline so staff can consolidate feedback before the next draft is presented.