Dalton Voters Reject Tiny House Bylaw, Approve Air Monitoring Funds

DALTON -- June 29, 2026, Dalton voters rejected a movable tiny house zoning amendment and approved $27,000 for air-quality monitoring at a special town meeting on June 29. The tiny house article, a citizen's petition brought by Amy Turnbull of 60 John Street, a director with the American Tiny House Association, would have allowed movable tiny houses on single- or two-family lots by special permit under bylaw 350-5; it failed 20 to 41, well short of the two-thirds threshold, as residents raised concerns about undefined setbacks, height limits, and appearance standards. The $27,000 Clean Air Committee appropriation, amended upward from an original $20,000 by Select Board member Anthony Pagliarulo, brings Dalton's cumulative spending on its air-quality campaign against Berkshire Concrete to $77,000 across two budget cycles, covering a second Air Partners assessment and an evaluation of five state-funded Purple Air monitors. Finance Committee member Thomas Irwin pressed the committee on whether any sand samples had been analyzed; the answer was no, with Berkshire Concrete having refused property access for sampling.