PUTNEY — At a special public hearing Sept. 25, the Selectboard amended the zoning bylaws to give the Planning Commission and Development Review Board more flexibility in setting the number of people serving on those bodies.
No residents spoke up about the administrative change, which eliminates the requirement of nine board members in favor of “no less than three and no greater than nine” members.
It remains up to each board to set the practical size of the board within that range.
According to Town Manager Cynthia Stoddard, both boards have struggled with making quorum, both because of absences and lack of people to fill the roles.
The bylaw changes, affecting Section 110.2 DRB and 110.3 Planning Commission, free those boards from the requirement of having nine members.
Stoddard told the Selectboard at the meeting that the DRB lacked enough members to run its August meeting, “which held an application up for somebody, which was very problematic.”
The Planning Commission proposed the bylaw change, Stoddard said.
In contrast to the Selectboard, where a vote need carry only a majority of members present to pass, both the DRB and Planning Commission require approval of a majority of the whole board.
The problem principally rested with the DRB, Stoddard said: “If only five members [of nine allotted] showed, they all had to agree, or we were all back at the drawing table.”
At press time the DRB consisted of six members and an alternate. Phillip Bannister is chair, and Mary Heller Osgood is vice-chair. Meetings are as needed in Town Hall at 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month.
Bannister also chairs the Planning Commission, which meets 7 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month, also in Town Hall.