BYRON – Voters by a 2-1 margin on Tuesday passed both local questions governing development in this small northern Oxford County town.

A referendum question asking voter approval to bring the town’s floodplain ordinance in line with state statue passed by a vote of 40-17.

Planning Board Chairman David Duguay said the last time the local ordinance was updated was in the early 1990s. Approved on Tuesday were changes that bring such things as setbacks, allowable uses and runoff regulations in line with state statute.

The second question essentially eliminated a development philosophy that allows clustering in subdivisions. Voters approved that by a vote of 40-16.

Under the new local rule, the lot size for all subdivisions must be a minimum of 10 acres. Under clustering, houses could be built close to each other as long as the total subdivision includes a sufficient amount of land that totals 10 acres times the number of homes.

Byron residents said no to that. Each home must be sited on a 10-acre lot.

Duguay said the change was proposed because of the belief that some developers could cluster homes, leaving basically unusable land, such as swamps and other wetlands, as the open space.

Duguay believes Tuesday’s vote sent a clear message that the town is doing what its residents want.