Stephanie Boyd has lived in Williamstown with her family for over 20 years.
“I'm currently retired," she told WAMC. "I worked for many years at Williams College. I was the founding director of the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives there, the sustainability office, and I worked for a while as the director of facility operations. And I'm from Canada originally. I have a degree in civil engineering and an MBA.”
After five years on the planning board, Boyd says she feels that now is the time to make the jump to the select board.
“I've been on a variety of committees in town, the COOL committee, our environmental committee, the conservation commission, planning board, the Hoosic River Watershed Association. And I feel like all the experiences that I've gathered from all those committees could really support work at the select board. I also think it's a prime time with the finishing up of our comprehensive plan that's going to involve work from all of our committees. To provide a bridge from the planning board to the select board will be instrumental in in helping that plan be successful.”
Housing, the expense and shortage of which remains a perennial concern in Berkshire County, is one of the issues Boyd says Williamstown needs to address.
“We're seeing the pricing of housing going up, but salaries staying fairly stagnant for for the working class," said Boyd. "And how do we develop a diverse community when it's very difficult to find housing in Williamstown? We have very low stock of rental units. Most of our houses are single family homes that are quite expensive. So, the planning board has been working to relax some of the zoning regulations that would encourage development of different housing types, but we need to do more in that area. I think there are other things that we can do to help with affordability in our community. I think we really have to look at both the expense side of managing the town as well as, what tools, what strategies do we have to change our property tax policies.”
Williamstown is still moving out of the long shadow cast by a series of scandals out of its police department. Issues of racism, sexual harassment, and misuse of criminal databases precipitated the resignations of the then-chief and town manager in recent years.
“We've had some issues with our police force, some loss of faith in town management," Boyd said. "I think we're making a lot of headway in that area, but we need to continue to do that. And another key aspect is, two years ago, the town committed to becoming net zero, reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, as has the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I've been working with the COOL committee and a taskforce that we've put in place to develop a plan for that.”
WAMC asked Boyd to highlight the accomplishments from her tenure on the planning board that best display her abilities as a leader in Williamstown.
“I think I helped get a couple of challenging zoning bylaws passed," she said. "One was around, a couple of years back, we were working on regulations related to marijuana and growing marijuana outdoors. And you know, that's a pretty tricky subject. People are obviously nervous about how that may impact their neighborhood, their home, their ability to enjoy their property. And I think our ability on the planning board to really understand the impact, look at what other communities have done, do a lot of research, and present to the town, a thoroughly vetted set of regulations helped us pass that regulation. And similarly, a few years back, we worked on a regulation to allow accessory dwelling units. There was a significant pushback during the year, but by the time we got to town meeting, and we had a 20-page FAQ put together with all kinds of evidence that supported that this would be a good initiative for our community. And, you know, you need two thirds votes to pass many of our zoning regulations, and the community overwhelmingly voted for both those warrant articles.”
Williamstown’s annual town election is May 9th.
