The Woodside Heights homeowners have been persistent and well organized, good for them for working towards a reasonable accommodation to the existing zoning and building codes. Change is hard but they have gone about it the right way.

The headline is a trifle misleading. While it's technically correct that somewhat larger main houses would be allowed in Woodside Heights under the proposal, it's equally important to mention (as the article does near the end) that this is a tradeoff of square footage between the main house and any guest house(s) on the lot. The total allowable square footage does NOT change, and in many cases having, for example, a single 5,000 sq foot structure would have less total impact, visibility, etc than having a 4,000 sq foot house AND a 1,000 sq foot guest house on the same lot.

What a joke. Anyone who has spent 5 mins in Woodside knows that there's not a single property below 5,000 square feet. Glad the town will quickly review those outhouse and garage proposals!

Lowering the number of people on the commission is equally farcical; all it takes is one person to cause endless delays and expenses.

I've been through this process -- successfully. It is completely arbitrary and unfair. Let's not kid ourselves that "reform" is anything other than an attempt to make nice, right before an election.