GREENFIELD — Following the state’s release of guidelines outlining how accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, can be locally regulated earlier this year, housing activists filed four proposed amendments to regulate ADUs in the form of a citizen’s petition on Friday.

If approved by City Council, the proposed ordinance amendments would mandate that the Greenfield Housing Authority provide deed-restrictive rental housing vouchers for ADUs, to the extent that they are available, to low-income households to limit each household’s share of rental costs to 30% of the household’s income or less.

The amendments also would alter the city’s ordinance to consider units that exist within a principal dwelling as ADUs, limit the number of ADUs allowable on a single-family lot to only one and mandate that any use of an ADU that requires a special permit be brought before the Planning Board for a site plan review.

City residents Al Norman, Mitchell Speight and Joan Marie Jackson filed the proposed amendments, which were signed by 14 residents, with City Clerk Kathryn Scott less than two months after City Council voted 8-2 against the trio’s previous petition to regulate the land to restrict the construction of ADUs to parcels that are 0.5 acres or larger and consist of at least 50% open space.

“In Greenfield, almost every housing document you see talks about not just building more housing, but affordable housing. I mean, we don’t really need to focus too much on people who have the means to buy a house without turning to public assistance,” Norman said of the amendment requiring vouchers be distributed to low-income renters. “It’ll now be probably landlords creating these units, and the rental market for them will be unaffordable unless we do something.”

The first citizen’s petition came in the wake of the Affordable Homes Act’s passage in August, which allows for the by-right construction of ADUs statewide. Although the state law allows municipalities some regulatory power over ADUs, its final guidelines determining how cities and towns can legally regulate them were released in February.

The council voted against the original petition after the city’s legal counsel advised that the petition would put Greenfield in violation of ther Affordable Homes Act, however, Norman said all of the four newly proposed amendments comply with state law and can be considered and further amended individually while they make their way through the city’s boards and committees.

“If my house qualifies for an ADU and it’s a single-family, if I want to add one inside the principal dwelling, that’s my protected ADU,” Norman said of the amendment defining internal accessory units as ADUs. ” I can’t then say, OK, and I’m going to do one on my backyard as well, because that would be two. So we wanted to, we wanted to have it clear, so that there wouldn’t be any any confusion.”

Norman noted that the proposed amendment requiring a site plan review for ADU uses that are unprotected under the Affordable Homes Act primarily is intended to provide the city more insight on future ADU developments and ensure abutters are notified prior to the special permit hearing.

“It’s not like site plans kill projects,” he said. “What they do is make them better.”

Jackson and Speight were not available for comment on Monday. The proposed amendments were expected to be further discussed at they city’s Committee Chairs meeting Tuesday evening at City Hall.

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.