JAY VINSKEY
Westfield City Planner
WESTFIELD – The Planning Board has recommended to the City Council several zoning changes brought by the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA), including changing the definition of a family to four persons living together as a household.
City Planner Jay Vinskey said the ZBA looked at other college communities and how they define family for the purpose of city ordinances. He said usually four is “the magic number” as to what constitutes the equivalence of a family.
Board member Cheryl Crowe asked about such details a number of parking spaces required for a four-person household. “In my interpretation, family are people you know, versus four people renting a space,” she said.
Vinskey said the proposal is to expand the definition of a family. “We use the word family because throughout the ordinance is the (reference to) single-family, two-family. This would expand family to a household of four people living together,” he said. He said 5 to 6 people would be considered a two family unit, and require a bigger lot and more parking.
“College roommates are living together effectively as a family,” Vinskey said, adding it’s consistent with the neighborhood. He also said the Law Department is not going to enforce the definition of family.
“We don’t want to get into micromanaging the composition of the family; it gets into law,” Vinskey said.
“I’m good with the wording. My two daughters both live in this exact scenario. I’m used to it, I’m comfortable with it,” said Planning Board chair William Carellas. “Regarding parking, they have driveways and street parking, and they have to adhere to street parking laws if they don’t have adequate parking onsite,” he added.
Vinskey said this is defining a set number of a 4 people unit as a family. “We’re not charting new territory,” he said.
During public comment on the ordinance change, Sheila and Dan Tenero of Claremont Street, said she and they made the original appeal before the ZBA. “We do support these new definitions. We believe family is not biology only,” she said, adding that the definition that the city had embraced was old-fashioned and wasn’t being enforced.
“This new definition encompasses people you choose to live with as family and also provides stability,” she said.
The Planning Board voted unanimously to recommend to the City Council the new definition of family in the ordinance. A public hearing on the change will be held during the City Council meeting on May 6.
The Planning Board also voted to recommend several other zoning amendments, which Vinskey described as not substantive, but involved rearranging sections to make them clearer and easier to read.
