Tyngsborough Planning Board Recommends ADU Bylaw for May 5 Town Meeting Vote

TYNGSBOROUGH — April 2, 2026 — Tyngsborough Planning Board unanimously recommended an Accessory Dwelling Unit zoning bylaw for the May 5 Annual Town Meeting after a two-hour working session that rewrote key provisions in real time. The board, advised by Town Counsel throughout the hearing, voted to add the new bylaw as Section 4.5 of the zoning code rather than replacing the existing Temporary Independent Living Quarter provision at Section 9.3 — a decision aimed at protecting property owners with existing TILQ special permits from having their conditions voided. The board added language capping each lot at one by-right ADU of up to 900 square feet, or 50 percent of the gross floor area of the principal dwelling, whichever is smaller, with a conflict clause stating Section 4.5 controls if the two sections clash. Town Counsel cautioned the board that the state's reasonableness standard sharply limits architectural design requirements and bars owner-occupancy conditions — "there is no owner occupancy requirement whatsoever" under the new law — and warned that attempting to require a special permit for ADUs on nonconforming lots, as Marblehead did, was struck by the Attorney General. All ADU definitions were relocated to the centralized Section 11 definitions section consistent with the town's recently recodified zoning bylaw.