Dover Planning Board Delays Flood Plain Bylaw Vote to February 27

DOVER — February 6, 2023 — Dover Planning Board postpones flood plain bylaw vote and braces for contested car club resubmission. The board, meeting February 6, pushed its planned vote on updates to the flood plain overlay district zoning bylaw to February 27 after receiving late comments from Town Counsel Nina Picker and Cook the same evening; the bylaw must clear the board by that date to meet the legal-ad deadline for the May 2023 Annual Town Meeting. A state consultant explained that the update brings Dover into compliance with a 2020 state model bylaw, adds a formal Floodplain Administrator designation — likely the building inspector — and will simplify a second required update when new Charles River watershed flood maps are expected to take effect in June 2024, affecting 40 buildings and 31 insurance policyholders in town. The board also announced it will take up an amendment request from Jonathan Frier to his previously approved car club project at the same February 27 meeting; the chair described the submission as "far from complete" and said proposed changes — including roughly doubling the building's size and parking capacity and adding an easement on an abutting parcel — may require classification as a new full site plan application rather than a minor amendment.