Greenfield Planning Board votes to advance shelter zoning fix, defers river corridor decision

GREENFIELD -- April 2, 2026, Greenfield Planning Board advances a shelter zoning fix and takes a first look at a Green River corridor overlay district. The board voted 4-1, with one abstention, to define "housing shelter" in the city's zoning ordinance and add shelters to the list of uses requiring site plan review, closing a gap identified by City Planner Ella, who found that shelters do not meet the existing dwelling-unit definition because they lack independent cooking facilities. A parking standard of 0.1 spaces per bed was included in the amendment. The board simultaneously voted to initiate the formal zoning amendment process, pairing the shelter change with two previously initiated ordinance revisions. On the river corridor question, Andrea Donlis of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments presented a model overlay district for the Green River based on LiDAR-derived mapping completed by fluvial geomorphologist Nick Miller under a 2019 toolkit project funded by an EDA planning grant expiring June 30. The board took no formal action, agreeing to revisit the item in approximately one month after reviewing a model ordinance and receiving additional parcel-level GIS analysis from FRCOG.