Rockport planners send their tiny house questions to the state and aim for the fall 2027 town meeting; a solar bylaw rewrite is next

Rockport's Planning Board decided Thursday that it is not ready to write zoning for tiny houses and small lots in time for the spring town meeting. The board will send a list of more than 30 questions to the state housing office and the Attorney General's office and aim for the fall 2027 town meeting instead. No vote was taken; the board agreed by consensus.

What happened

• The board's seasonal communities subcommittee met for three hours and came back with questions, not a draft. The biggest: if Rockport allows lots as small as 5,000 square feet, does it have to allow them in every neighborhood that permits a single family house? Members believe the answer is yes.
• Members said there is little reason anyone would build a 400 square foot tiny house on its own lot, since a 5,000 square foot lot could hold a 3,000 square foot house by right. A cluster of small homes on one larger parcel seemed more likely to be built.
• The board's consulting planner said the town's solar rules may conflict with state law, which bars towns from prohibiting or unreasonably regulating solar. She is drafting a rewrite, and said she has been approached about a six acre solar farm on a 22 acre site in the north end of town.
• The board kept its 6:30 p.m. start time and approved its Aug. 20 and Sept. 3 minutes with corrections.

The seasonal communities puzzle

Rockport took the state's new seasonal community designation, members said, mainly to keep its limits on short term rentals of accessory dwelling units. The designation comes with a to do list: the town must allow tiny houses, defined by the state as 400 square feet or less, as of right where single family homes are allowed, and must allow what the state calls attainable housing on undersized lots.

The state model sets the undersized lot at 10,000 square feet, or 25 percent of a district's minimum, and lets a town go smaller. Many Rockport lots are already 10,000 square feet. The subcommittee's working number is 5,000 square feet, with one member suggesting about 3,000 square feet per home inside a cluster so a house does not swim on its lot and a septic system can fit.

That is where the questions start. Members read the rules as requiring the smaller lot in every district that allows single family homes, which in Rockport is nearly all of them, including the RA district where the minimum is now 40,000 square feet. The model is silent on existing lots that are too small today and on how the board would handle a plan to carve a 5,000 square foot lot off a larger one. Attainable housing under the state's definition can go up to 250 percent of the area's median income, which one member called "super high." The artist housing section, members found, mostly says a town may spend money on artist housing and must keep records if it does.

"It's the lot size," one member said. "That's what it comes down to." Another said shrinking lots to 5,000 square feet anywhere in town will be controversial no matter where it happens.

Members said the more workable idea is a cluster: an acre with eight small homes, owned as condominiums, sharing one sewer line and common space. One member asked whether requiring 20 percent of a cluster's units to be affordable could help the town's count toward the state's 10 percent affordable housing goal, which new accessory units are pushing the wrong way. The Attorney General's office has offered to help sort out the legal questions, members said. A member asked for a map of lots large enough to be split under the new rules.

Members said Question 7 on this week's state ballot, which would have set 5,000 square foot lots statewide, appeared to be failing statewide but passed in Rockport. Rockport's own zoning can go smaller than the state minimum without a state mandate, they noted.

Solar: the town's rules may be out of date

The consulting planner told the board she learned of a 2024 case in which the Zoning Board of Appeals granted a special permit for ground mounted solar on a house lot. The town's bylaw, Section 400-35, allows solar panels by right only when attached to a building and sends ground mounted systems to the appeals board. State law, Chapter 40A, Section 3, says no zoning bylaw may prohibit or unreasonably regulate solar systems except to protect public health, safety or welfare.

She is drafting changes to that section and to the town's large scale solar rules, which now allow solar farms only on part of the transfer station property. She said she has been approached about a six acre solar farm on a 22 acre parcel in northern Rockport. A project that size would need stormwater review, site plan review by the Planning Board and the state's new clean energy permit, she said.

Members pushed back on how far the state law reaches. One said five acres of panels on undeveloped land is "not that attractive, literally and figuratively," and asked whether the town really has to allow it. The board asked that the town administrator and town counsel be consulted on whether the state protection covers large solar farms as well as rooftop and backyard systems. One member noted the historic district still reviews roof panels; another suggested requiring a three foot gap at roof edges so firefighters can work, where the bylaw now requires two feet. Any change would go to town meeting.

Lighting bylaw: a joint meeting proposed

A board member who drafted the town's proposed outdoor lighting bylaw said he missed most of the Oct. 26 Government and By-Law Committee discussion of it and, after listening to the recording, sent that committee's chair a list of what he called misunderstandings. Her response, he said, was to propose a joint meeting of the two boards rather than correct the record directly. He said he had also sent corrections to the Cape Ann Current's write-up of that meeting, which were published as an update. A Granite Street resident at public comment urged the board to get the bylaw's cost questions in front of the Finance Committee, noting the Select Board has set up a 90 day task force on streetlight costs.

What was decided

• Aug. 20 minutes, as amended: approved, one member abstaining because he was absent, from the meeting video.
• Sept. 3 minutes, as amended: approved, one member abstaining because she was absent, from the meeting video.
• Seasonal communities zoning: no vote. The board will send its questions to the state and the Attorney General's office and target the fall 2027 town meeting.
• Solar bylaw: no vote. Staff will draft changes and consult town counsel.
• Meeting time: stays at 6:30 p.m.

What happens next

• The consulting planner will draft the question letter for the chair's review, then send it to the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities and the Attorney General's office.
• A solar bylaw draft and a legal opinion are expected back to the board before any town meeting article.
• The board's next meeting will be posted on the town's agendas page; meetings start at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom.

Where to find the records

• Planning Board agenda, Nov. 5
• Meeting recording, on the town's Recorded Zoom Meetings page
• Chapter 40A, Section 3, the state law on solar

Earlier coverage: Rockport tiny house zoning: planners say state's lots are too big (Oct. 17), the board's first work session. Rockport affordable housing trust hits $1 million, eyes tiny houses (Oct. 18). Rockport's sign bylaw rewrite waits on the state; the bylaw committee says the Planning Board's lighting rules are not ready for town meeting (Oct. 28), the Oct. 26 committee meeting discussed Thursday.

How we did this: Cape Ann Current watched the meeting online and checked names and figures against the agenda and the board's roster on the town website. These are our meeting notes, not the town's minutes.