Lakeville planning board delays new stormwater bylaw, seeks implementation details before town vote

The Lakeville Planning Board on March 24 agreed to delay presenting a proposed stormwater bylaw to Spring Town Meeting, citing unresolved questions about who would administer the bylaw and outstanding implementation materials.

Michelle McEachern, chair of the Lakeville Planning Board, said the board has worked on the bylaw since last May but does not feel confident bringing it to voters in spring without accompanying procedures and application materials. "I don't feel comfortable presenting it to Town Meeting because of the unknowns," McEachern said.

The board discussed specific materials McEachern said should accompany a new bylaw: an application form, a defined process for administration, and a set of standard conditions similar to those used in site plan review. Nancy Durfee, the town planner who attended the meeting for her final planning-board session, and clerk Kathy Murray both agreed the draft needs more work before adoption. Murray said the implementation process needs clarification so the town can administer the bylaw once passed.

McEachern also reported she had attended a Select Board meeting where the presenter had not yet secured a vote on which town office would administer the stormwater bylaw. That uncertainty helped prompt the decision to postpone. "They did not yet vote on who’s gonna administer the stormwater bylaw," McEachern said.

Board members agreed it was preferable to delay by a few months to ensure the bylaw package is complete and accompanied by necessary administrative materials. The board will not include the stormwater bylaw on the materials it plans to send to the Select Board for the upcoming warrant; McEachern said she removed it from that list because it was not ready.

The discussion was framed as a decision to postpone and to continue refining administrative procedures; no formal vote on the bylaw itself was taken at the March 24 meeting. The board plans to revisit the matter for possible placement on a fall Town Meeting warrant, after identifying an administrator and completing application and implementation instructions.

Background: At the start of the meeting McEachern noted the session was the last with Town Planner Nancy Durfee and said the board wanted to "tie up as many things" as possible before Durfee's departure.