Special Town Meeting voters shutdown three proposed zoning amendments last fall. Those amendments, however, are back, and this time they have the Planning Board’s backing.

Saunders returned on March 2 with the same amendments and asked for the boards endorsement.

“Each of the three amendments simply represents good planning,” said Saunders.

One amendment would let undeveloped areas designated as light industrial districts be used as part of the open space requirement for cluster subdivisions. Cluster subdivision lots are for single family homes and are smaller than regular lots. They also have a designated open space requirement.

The second amendment would allow for the creation of duplexes in cluster subdivisions by eliminating the requirement for a side boundary between residences. The third amendment, which Saunders called “the simplest of all,” would permit cluster subdivisions to be built in business districts.

The town allows all other residential buildings to be built in these districts.

In October, voters were confused as to the purpose of the amendments and who actually sponsored them.

As the Planning Board understood it, landowners in the Bay Club brought the amendments, but the meeting agenda cited the board as the sponsor. The board maintained that was a mistake and that it only agreed to forward the agenda items to the meeting.

Brad Saunders, a land planning consultant with D + E Management LLC, represented the Bay Club landowners.

He provided a brief explanation of the amendments at Special Town Meeting, but not enough to satisfy voters. With no Planning Board members at the meeting to answer questions, voters “indefinitely postponed” the amendments.

“Personally, I think that was probably something that just slipped through the cracks for some reason,” said Saunders. “I wouldn’t know why the Planning Board would object to them if they are recognized as virtually all beneficial.”

The board agreed, voting to sponsor the amendments at Town Meeting in May. Residents can weigh in on them at a public hearing during the board's April 6 meeting.