HADLEY — With a new senior housing overlay district in place, adopted by voters at a special Town Meeting Thursday, Amherst developer Barry Roberts said his team will begin preparing to bring forward a proposal for 55-and-over housing on a 30-acre property off North Maple Street known as the Babb Farm.

“Engineers will go to work to figure out what this project looks like,” Roberts told residents, after about 30 minutes of discussion that concluded with a 95-12 vote, giving the rezoning more than 88% approval and easily clearing the necessary two-thirds majority to authorize a zoning change.

Residents who came to Hopkins Academy for the special meeting, which ran more than 3½ hours, approved all 21 articles on the warrant, including adjusting the accessory dwelling unit bylaw to bring it into compliance with state law and providing funding for a protective area beneath the new playgrounds at Hadley Elementary School.

New overlay district

The new overlay district for senior housing is bounded by Route 9 to the south, Route 116 to the east, Rocky Hill Road to the north and North Maple Street to the west.

Roberts said he doesn’t know how many units the project will encompass, but it could be up to 50, depending on the extent of wetlands. He assured that all infrastructure will be complete and 15% of the homes will be affordable.

Jan Peterson of Stockbridge Street said she is enthusiastic about having more 55-and-over housing options. “I’m dying for this to happen,” Peterson said. “I want to age in Hadley and I can’t do it unless I downsize.”

Roberts has already built out the 35-unit East Street Commons for those 55 and over, but a request to extend the senior overlay district to Middle Street was defeated by Town Meeting in 2019.

The rezoning won support from members of the Select Board, including David J. Fill II, who said it is the best option for the land and comes with no infrastructure costs for the town.

Select Board Chairwoman Molly Keegan said the project will bring revenue and is aligned with the town’s housing production plan.

The approval came over the objections of some residents who sought some form of compensation.

Accessory dwelling units

Voters also made changes to Hadley’s current accessory dwelling unit bylaw, ensuring it aligns with state law, allowing these to be up to 900 square feet or half the area of the primary structure, and allowed by right in all residential districts.

The main changes will allow detached accessory units, which are currently prohibited, and no longer require that the primary or accessory unit be occupied by the owner.

“Planning Board and town don’t anticipate a run on accessory dwelling units,” said Planning Board Chairman James Maksimoski.

Playground, speed limits

Among the largest spending articles was drawing $290,000 from the Community Preservation Act account so poured-in-place rubber can be used below the playground at the elementary school that opened this fall, replacing the wood chips currently being used as the padding.

School Committee member Tara Brugger said this surface will make the playground more accessible, safer and affordable, adding that for the $616,000 cost of the playground, more than half came from community donations.

Brian Carroll of Breckenridge Road said he prefers seeing wood chips. “To me, it’s not the way to go,” Carroll said of the poured-in-place rubber. “I prefer natural.”

But a student who has used the playground, Darrow Pfannenstiel, told Town Meeting that the playground and the wood chips shift when children run on them and is less comfortable than rubber.

“When you fall off of play structures — occasionally — it hurts,” Darrow said, to laughter and then applause from Town Meeting.

The setting of a townwide speed limit of 25 mph for the thickly settled and business districts also generated discussion before passing in a 61-37 vote. The signs will be posted at the entrances to town.