NORTHAMPTON — A group of residents and business owners are calling on the city’s planning department to ditch what they describe as restrictive rules placed on remote meeting participants, saying the policies used for public comment deprive them of a “seat at the table” for significant decisions that can affect the city for years to come.

“Meetings generated by the various bodies of the department contain momentous conversations that shape the city’s present and future,” the letter states, referring to the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals. “We believe in our right to have a seat at the table, to be heard and treated with respect, and to have our voices reflected in the decisions that are made by the department and its entities.”

The letter, signed by 41 people, was sent Monday to Carolyn Misch, director of Planning & Sustainability, George Kohout, Planning Board chair, and Nathan Chung, the city’s land-use planner. Many of those who signed the letter have previously been involved in opposition efforts over the city’s Picture Main Street project, as well as opponents of the city’s current zoning ordinances.

They argue that the department lacks full transparency and accessibility for the public to participate in meetings.

The letter notes that at city Planning Board meetings, public participants appearing remotely over Zoom are not allowed to personally speak during meetings, but rather their public comments must be submitted in writing, which are then read aloud by Misch. The comments must also be submitted to the board before 4 p.m. on the day of the meeting. The same rules also apply for the department’s Zoning Board of Appeals meetings.

The letter also calls for greater audio-video support for department meetings, which are held in the Northampton City Council chambers.

“Both in person and remote participants struggle to hear what’s being said in these meetings,” said Jacqueline McCreanor, one of the signatories and a frequent critic of the city’s zoning ordinances. “We just want, as residents and downtown business owners, to be able to hear the meeting.”

In a previous email to McCreanor dated Feb. 13 and shared with the Gazette, Misch said that the city was working with Northampton Open Media to provide a new speaker system for the council chambers. Misch also defended the Planning Board’s public comments policy.

“The permit granting boards have a more difficult format from other committees and boards because they have statutory obligations relative to the time at which public comment is taken,” Misch said in the email. “All the City committees and boards determine what format they individually want to conduct their meetings, whether that is all remote, all in person, or hybrid.”

In an interview, Kohout acknowledged that the Planning Board had been struggling with technical issues, and that further discussion of how to improve the audio quality would be discussed at a coming meeting.

“It’s a brave new world with all the hybrid meetings and Zoom stuff,” Kohout said. “We recognize it’s been difficult and we’re working on getting support soon.”

On Tuesday, Misch responded to the residents’ letter by email, reiterating the reasons behind the current policies for the department’s meetings, but also suggested that changes were not off the table.

“Though most boards staffed by our office have experimented with various scenarios for the best way to host public meetings and hearings, my guess is that this testing and trying of different formats will continue as time goes on,” Misch said. “All of these alterations are made based on schedules, comfort level, feedback, successes and failures.”

The residents raising concerns say that all stakeholders should have a seat at the table and the right to speak for themselves when it comes to major issues confronting the community, such as climate change, affordability, housing, social justice, pedestrian and cyclist safety, accessibility, the revitalization of downtown Northampton, fiscal management, and responsible stewardship of the city’s built and natural resources.

The city’s Picture Main Street project, which will narrow motor vehicle lanes while expanding sidewalks and adding bike lanes downtown, has previously drawn concern from some downtown businesses, who worry the plan will cause increased traffic and that construction will affect the bottom line of businesses still recovering from the pandemic. The city has maintained that the end result will have a positive effect on downtown’s economy, pointing to similar makeovers in similar-size cities such as Concord, New Hampshire.

Judy Herrell, who runs Herrell’s Ice Cream, and John DiBartolo, an attorney in Northampton, had previously led efforts to propose alternative redesigns for the project, but had been rejected by both Planning & Sustainability and the Northampton City Council. Both Herrell and DiBartolo were signatories to the letter.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.