Proposed amendment by municipal officers, Planning Board or upon
petition. If either the municipal officers or the Planning Board desires
to propose any changes to this chapter, or if a citizen petition as
set forth herein is brought, the following procedure shall be followed:
If the proposal is initiated by the municipal officers, they
shall formally request the Planning Board to hold a public hearing
as set forth below and to carry out the other procedural requirements
of this section.
If a petition requesting amendment of this chapter, signed by
at least 300 registered voters of the City, is filed with the Planning
Board, the Board shall promptly (1) request the City Clerk to verify
the signatures, and (2) if the Clerk verifies that at least 300 of
the signatures are valid, the Board shall then carry out the other
procedural requirements of this section.
Public hearing. As soon as the amendment procedure is initiated by
any of the above methods, the Board shall cause the City Clerk to
give public notice of a public hearing on the proposed changes, which
notice shall be made in a newspaper of general circulation in the
City; and be published in one issue of such paper, at least 15 days
prior to the date of hearing, the notice shall contain the time, date
and place of hearing, and sufficient detail about the proposed changes
as to give adequate notice of their content and import. If the proposed
changes are extensive, a brief summary of the changes, together with
an indication that a full text is available at the City Clerk's office,
shall be adequate notice provided that in fact sufficient copies of
the text are made so available.
As soon as possible after such public hearing and in any event
within 60 days, the Planning Board shall make a written recommendation
for or against the proposed changes to the municipal officers.
The municipal officers shall not act on a proposed change until
the recommendation of the Planning Board is before them. A proposed
change which has been disapproved by the Planning Board may be enacted
by a two-thirds vote of the municipal officers.