Peterborough staff need more time to determine the validity of the protest petition the town received last week, and Deputy Town Administrator Nicole MacStay recommended the town proceed with ballot voting as though it were valid in the meantime. The protest petition concerns Zoning Amendment 1, which seeks to repeal Traditional Neighborhood Overlay Zone 1. A valid protest petition would require two-thirds of voters to approve Article 2 for it to pass, whereas a simple majority could pass the article if the petition is found to be invalid, she wrote.
In order for the protest petition to take effect, its signatories must either own at least 20 percent of the TNOZ1 area, or 20 percent of the area within 100 feet immediately adjacent to it, MacStay wrote in a memo sent to the Select Board on July 2. “Town staff has begun the process of verifying ownership or authority and calculating acreage, but it is unlikely that process will be completed before the Select Board’s meeting on July 7, 2020,” she wrote.
Many landowners in TNOZ1 are LLCs, LPs and trusts, and town staff needs to compile records to calculate the land area the signers represent, MacStay wrote.
There is legal precedent for allowing a town to vote before a protest petition’s validity is determined, she wrote.
The protest petition could be invalidated after the vote once the signatories are verified, she clarified on Monday.