Ordinances committee resumes public hearing on zoning use table; multiple approval-authority changes and targeted amendments approved

The Committee on Ordinances of the New Bedford City Council continued a public hearing on revisions to the city's zoning use table (section 1,200) on Sept. 29, 2025, and approved a series of amendments altering which body grants special permits and which industrial uses are allowed in particular zones. The committee voted to close the hearing and to send drafted ordinance language to the city solicitor for formal drafting and further legal research.

The hearing resumed material referred from May 28, 2025, and continued from an Aug. 25 public hearing; planning staff presented a packet that included a zoning overview and an amended use table. The planning office said it reconciled conflicts between the text of the zoning ordinance and the previously issued use table by deferring to the ordinance where the two conflicted.

"Failing to have a valid reason to maintain the special permit granting authority as listed in the use table, which is in conflict with the ordinance, we chose to move everything to what the ordinance called for," said Mike McCarthy, assistant city planner. He and other planning staff walked the committee through district-by-district changes and the rationale for each change.

Why it matters: The committee's choices change who reviews and decides special permits for specific uses and, for some uses, where those uses can be sited. Council members said those changes affect neighborhood quality of life, waterfront uses and the council's oversight role; in several cases the committee restored the council's authority or directed further review rather than leave decisions to the…