OXFORD — A special town meeting is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 19 to vote on proposed amendments to the town’s zoning ordinance that affect off-street parking and the mill redevelopment district.
The Board of Selectmen on Thursday directed Town Manager Michael Chammings to organize the special town meeting, after voting to approve the amendments recommended by the town’s ordinance review committee.
A change to the town’s parking lot size requirements was brought up because of the hotel being developed on Route 26 across from the Oxford Casino, Chammings told the board.
The current parking lot ordinance has separate lot size requirements for hotels and restaurants, based on seating and number of rooms, even if the hotel and restaurant are in the same building, Chammings explained.
The changes would allow a smaller parking lot, based on the assumption that guests at the hotel would also be dining at the attached restaurant, Chammings said.
The proposed changes would allow applicants to reduce the amount of parking space by up to 30 percent if they demonstrate the lot had shared uses, the two uses had different peak times and the lot is 500 feet away from the building, according to the draft amendment.
The amendment also allows the Planning Board to approve up to 20 percent of a parking lot for smaller spaces designed for compact cars, Chammings said.
A second amendment to the zoning ordinance would allow the minimum width of a legal right of way to create a back lot to be reduced from a width of 60 feet to 24 feet, but only in the town’s mill redevelopment zone, centered on the former Robinson Mill on King Street.
The final proposed change allows the Planning Board to review and approve developments that do not meet frontage, setback or area requirements if it promotes “harmonious” and “superior” development.
Chammings said the change applied to existing buildings, such as the Robinson Mill, that could make improvements, such as additional driveways, if the designs made sense but did not meet setback requirements.
“It’s very specific, it’s nothing that can be applied as a variance and there is a very strict interpretation of it,” Chammings said.
According to a preliminary schedule presented at the meeting, a public hearing on the proposed changes will be held Aug. 22 and the special town meeting will be held Sept. 19.
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- Oxford Selectman Scott Owens, Board of Selectmen Chairman Floyd Thayer and Town Manager Michael Chammings listen to a resident’s question at the Oxford selectmen meeting Thursday.
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