EASTHAMPTON – During a recent Virtual Town Hall meeting hosted by Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle, City Planner Jeffrey Bagg introduced that the city was working on a zoning amendment to make the process for small businesses to settle in the city’s downtown area a little easier.

“For businesses, this is more important than ever as it will reduce barriers to allow new businesses to locate in Easthampton. Originally, it was the closure of Puffer Printing resulting in two vacant spaces on Union Street. They are prime locations and could be easily occupied by a range of new uses,” said Bagg.

He began to wonder what the city could do to help make it easier for vacant spaces to become re-occupied.

The concept of the zoning amendment was discussed during a recent Downtown Strategic Plan.

COVID-19 has forced many businesses to close which leaves buildings vacant. He said this amendment will remove the requirement to get a Planning Board “Plan Approval.”

This will save people nearly two months in permitting with the Planning Board and save them several hundred dollars.

“They will still need to get building, plumbing, electrical, and in some cases Health department permits so basic building, fire, and health codes will be met,” Bagg said.

A key factor that makes it feasible is that new uses going to existing buildings are not required to provide parking on-site in the downtown area.

It is beneficial to support a wide range of businesses to occupy smaller store front spaces. Many of the current vacant spaces appear to benefit from this amendment because they should be able to be occupied with minimal exterior changes, he said.

“The main question at this point seems to be what type of change would be significant. I believe minor changes would include those to comply with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) or other changes that don’t create new building footprint or alter the use,” said Bagg.

Bagg said the status of the amendment is going to be the subject of a joint public hearing with the Planning Board and Ordinance Subcommittee on July 28 at 6 p.m.

During this hearing the two boards will review the purpose and intent, ask and answer questions, and take any public comment. After the hearing, the entire city council will hold a public hearing on the final language.

He anticipates that the city council will hold their hearing on Aug. 19 and if approved, the amendment will take effect the next day and any business seeking to occupy an existing space can start to work directly with the Building Department on what internal improvements may be needed.