Easton committee to inventory ADUs, considers historic-house partnership

The Easton Affordable Housing Committee on April 20 directed staff and members to compile an inventory of the town's accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to better assess local affordable housing capacity, Chairwoman Beverlee Dacey said.

The move responds to a need the committee identified to understand “what we have for affordable housing in Easton,” Dacey said during the meeting. Committee member June Logie told colleagues she believes “there's 139 currently on record with town hall,” a figure the committee discussed as a starting point for verification.

Dacey also proposed partnering with Elizabeth Boyce of the Historic Society to cross-check ADU locations against the inventory of historic houses, noting the potential overlap between preservation interests and housing supply. The committee did not adopt a formal scope or deadline at the meeting but assigned a set of seven homework tasks to members to support the inventory and related research, including one task to research recent news related to water protection.

The committee framed the inventory as preparatory work: members said they want to learn which outside parameters or programs might apply to Easton before recommending policy changes. No formal motion on regulations, funding, or implementation was made; next steps were limited to the assignment of research tasks and further discussion at the committee's May 4 meeting.

The meeting minutes were filed by Town Clerk Deborah Szegedi.