North Adams panel OKs five zoning text fixes

Select Board · Meeting of August 14, 2026

NORTH ADAMS — The North Adams Codification Review Committee voted 3-0 five times to clean up zoning terminology and separately moved a new permit fee schedule toward the full City Council. Planning Coordinator William proposed raising Planning Board fees from $125 to $200 and adding a $100 legal notice surcharge, saying the board needs "three or four applications per month" just to break even against Berkshire Eagle notice costs running $430 to $460. Councilor Lisa Blackmere said the city is "paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in legal notice fees" and pushed for fuller cost recovery from applicants.

The committee also voted unanimously to rename the R-1 district "low density residential," dropping "rural" from the title after finding no legal definition for the term, and to fix duplicate listings for the Windsor Lake Watershed District and urban renewal project areas in the draft zoning chapter.

In the full story:

• Fee schedule for Planning Board and Conservation Commission
• Zoning chapter codification, Chapter Z
• Procedural notes and scheduling
• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report: 1,964 words

Source: the Select Board meeting of August 14, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.