Dartmouth Planning Board Approves Site Plan Bylaw Update for June Town Meeting

DARTMOUTH — April 6, 2026 — Dartmouth Planning Board unanimously advances a decade-old site plan review overhaul to the June 2 Town Meeting. The board voted 4-0 on April 6 to recommend Article 24 as revised, forwarding it to Town Administrator for presentation to the Select Board and Finance Committee before voters weigh in. Planning Director Daniel Gioiosa said the changes — developed over eight months with input from multiple town boards and Town Counsel — would reorganize site plan review by moving technical requirements into separate Planning Board regulations while retaining key policy provisions in the bylaw itself, giving the board new flexibility to grant waivers and reducing the influence of prior Zoning Board of Appeals decisions on Planning Board review. Member Kevin Estes, himself a town meeting member, pressed the board to actively pitch both the Finance Committee and Select Board: "a great deal of weight is put onto the opinions of FinCom and the select board." In a separate action, the board also authorized submission of the town's draft Housing Production Plan to the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities for pre-approval review, and Gioiosa announced plans to begin drafting a battery energy storage system bylaw targeting a fall Town Meeting warrant article.