Orange Zoning Recodification

Zoning Recodification for the Town of Orange, MA

In 2021, the Town of Orange received a Community Compact Grant to rewrite their zoning bylaws for clarity and consistency to help facilitate future economic growth and development.

Barrett Planning Group teamed up with Bob Mitchell, FAICP, to create a zoning diagnostic document to analyze the bylaw’s weaknesses, inconsistencies, and missing topics. Working with Town staff and the Planning Board, our team then made significant edits to the bylaw’s structure, organization, and language, including rearranging sections, redoing the document-wide numbering system, renaming all of the Town’s zoning districts, writing purpose statements foreach district, and producing an updated zoning map.

In August 2022, ahead of the recodification appearing on a Special Town Meeting warrant, our team assisted the Planning Board with stakeholder outreach to inform the public about the proposed changes. The recodified bylaw was adopted at Town Meeting in December 2022, and more of our suggested changes will be considered for adoption in 2023.