Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have revised the zoning regulations, liberalizing the housing options for grooms who want to use temporary quarters at large horse farms while training show horses for competition.

Architects Phil Hubbard and Peter Paulos of PH Architects, representing 42 Taunton Hill Road LLC, which owns RCG Farm at Taunton Hill, spoke at a May 16 P&Z public hearing on their client’s requested zoning regulations, which would allow show horse trainers to live in “recreational vehicles” for up to six months in aggregate of a calendar year at a horse farm while training those horses for equestrian competition.

Although called “recreational vehicles” in the revised regulations, the type of housing planned by 42 Taunton Hill Road LLC is otherwise known as “tiny homes,” which are small houses mounted on wheels that can be towed by a truck. Such tiny homes, in effect, are elaborate, registered travel trailers.

The new zoning rules are narrow in scope and currently would apply only to RCG Farm and to Red Gate Farm on Poverty Hollow Road, due to a requirement that a horse farm be at least 15 acres to qualify for the new housing rules.

During the public comment section of the public hearing, Michael Stern of 8 Saw Mill Ridge Road voiced concern about potential future abuses of the new zoning rules elsewhere in town. Mr Stern said such revised townwide zoning rules would inappropriately allow the avoidance of paying for other boarding options. Creating a precedent for longer occupancies of recreational vehicles could be troublesome in the future, he said.

The approved zoning rule changes extend the time that a groom could live in a recreational vehicle from four weeks to six months in aggregate within a given calendar year.

Following lengthy discussion, in a 4-to-1 vote, the P&Z approved the specialized housing for grooms at large horse farms, with Chairman Don Mitchell, Jim Swift, Barbara Manville, and Roy Meadows in favor and Corinne Cox opposed. The rules take effect June 8.

Among the provisions of the new regulations, one recreational vehicle would be allowed at a farm with a maximum of two people living in it; the vehicle must be registered; before such a vehicle is occupied, approvals must be obtained from the zoning enforcement officer and the health director.

In November 2011, the P&Z unanimously approved plans for the elaborate RCG Farm at Taunton Hill. The project was completed in 2014.