Select Board asks staff to draft formal guidance after first waiver requests under Acton’s fossil-fuel-free bylaw

The Acton Select Board on April 7 discussed how to handle waiver requests under the town’s fossil-fuel-free bylaw after the building commissioner reported the first applicant seeking relief. Board members heard from Building Commissioner Ed Mullen and residents and agreed staff should prepare written guidance and narrow criteria for waivers, with the expectation that most requests would be considered publicly by the Select Board.

Board members and staff framed the problem around two types of waiver requests: commercial (including restaurant kitchens) and residential (new construction and large renovations). Mullen said the first formal request received asked to replace a required induction cooktop in a new home with a gas cooktop because of the homeowner’s “traditional cooking habits” and cookware. He said the bylaw’s waiver language (chapter AC, section AC5) allows the building commissioner to grant waivers if compliance makes a project financially infeasible or impractical, but that the language anticipates narrow, limited waivers rather than blanket exceptions.

Several Select Board members said waivers should be handled publicly. “The act of allowing a waiver should be done in public so people can comment,” said a board member (Select Board member Jim). Members also discussed treating developers differently from individual homeowners and the town’s interest in narrow, site-specific waivers rather than broad exceptions that would undercut the bylaw. Some members said they would prefer written guidelines that would allow the building commissioner to act on routine, noncontroversial requests, with contested or precedent-setting cases brought to the Select Board.

Commercial kitchens were raised repeatedly as a likely category for narrowly tailored waivers, and commissioners asked staff to consider permitting propane rather than natural gas as a compromise where running a gas main would be impractical. Commissioner Mullen said some restaurants had declined to locate in Acton rather than pursue a waiver because of equipment costs and uncertainty.

The board also discussed process elements: how the building commissioner’s initial determinations should be appealed or elevated to the Select Board, what documentation applicants should provide (cost estimates, alternative technologies, and information about subsidies), and the scope of possible conditions on a waiver (e.g., limiting fossil fuel use to a single appliance or requiring future electrification when practical). Board members asked staff to return with draft guidance, and several said they expected that Select Board consideration would be the usual path for waivers in order to ensure public notice and comment.

What the board asked staff to do: draft written, public-facing guidance describing the application process, the documentation required to demonstrate infeasibility or impracticality, and the narrow types of conditions the board might impose. Select Board members said they expected to review a draft guidance document at a future meeting.

The discussion included public commenters, including builders and residents, who urged the board to consider the cost to homeowners and the town’s policy goals. Builder Tim Fenton said the retrofit cost to electrify a recently built house could exceed $50,000. Resident Nijan Datta urged the board not to “micromanage” household choices and questioned the local environmental impact of such rules.

The board did not make a final determination on any pending waiver at the meeting; rather, it instructed staff and invited Select Board members to draft guidance and to return with a proposed application process and criteria.