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SPENCER – As Spencer prepares to update its zoning bylaws and subdivision review, Town Planner Vivian Poplawski recommended either of two consulting firms to guide the process.
At a recent Planning Board meeting, Poplawski noted the town received four qualified responses to a Request for Proposals (RFP). Her recommendation was for CommunityScale, although she found Innes Land Strategies Group also “very advantageous.”
“I wanted to make sure you had a say in which consultant we select in case anyone has strong opinions about the proposals,” Poplawski said.
She said the Zoning Board of Appeals was also asked for input as the two committees have the most experience with zoning bylaws.
Poplawski said the two recommended options both had the most experience with similar projects, although CommunityScale had more of an emphasis on the Town Meeting adoption process and had worked in small towns.
The planner said CommunityScale could help Spencer with public outreach and marketing proposed bylaw changes, which have to go before Town Meeting for approval.
The firm would provide one project manager and three consultants to work on the tasks.
She added that both options received good reviews from their references.
Poplawski noted the town’s contract with EEA (Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs) goes through June 2027, so the timing goal would be the Spring Town Meeting.
However, they may be looking at a contract extension which would bump it to the Fall Town Meeting instead.
An extension would give the town, “the most time to make sure we are doing it well and putting a lot of thought into the process and not rushing it,” she said.
Planning Board chair Robert Ceppi asked whether the consultant would take the existing bylaws and massage and improve them versus “cutting and pasting,” them from other towns.
Poplawski said part of the process would involve bringing the bylaws into compliance with state regulations so there could be cutting and pasting. However, the focus would be on “Spencer specific issues,” that were included in the RFP, she replied.
She said both firms would prioritize learning about Spencer and work closely with the relevant boards. They are also Massachusetts-based, Poplawski said, because she did not think it would be effective to have a consultant mostly working remotely.
“The in-person, community engagement is such an important part of this,” Poplawski said.
“Both firms have experience writing specific sections of bylaws for towns and also full, comprehensive zoning bylaw reviews and re-writes,” she said.
Town Administrator Jeff Bridges said he encouraged the planner to seek input from the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals regarding the selection.
“This will be a very detailed process. You have to feel comfortable with what they produced in the past,” Bridges said.
Members of both boards will be emailing the planner with their suggestions by early next week.
Planning Board member Gina Beford said she liked the “in-house approach,” stating that she thought it would “translate much better.”
In other business, the Planning Board decided to keep Ceppi as chairperson and Shirley Shiver as vice chair.
Beford volunteered to serve as the board’s liaison to the Capital Improvements Committee, while Shiver said she would be the delegate to the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission (CMRPC).
The next Planning Board meeting is August 18.
