Greenwood Planning Board member John Kwoka resigned last month, citing what he described as the select board’s reluctance to review ordinances he believes are outdated and in need of revision.

Some local zoning disputes, he said, highlight ongoing tensions over land use, local oversight and whether Greenwood’s ordinances provide adequate protections for residents. To date, voters have shown little appetite for additional regulation, rejecting a proposed noise ordinance at the 2025 annual town meeting.

Kwoka served on the Planning Board for two years before stepping down. He said the select board’s reluctance to update ordinances led to his decision.

“I approach things proactively based on my 20-plus years of federal service experience,” Kwoka said.

He cited four areas where he believes ordinances should be added or updated: short-term rentals, year-round RV living, data centers and campgrounds.

He questioned what year-round RV residents are doing with their human waste, for instance.

“They are way behind, the ordinances are not current with the times,” Kwoka said. “I don’t know what the reluctance is.”

He used the example of someone buying their dream retirement home only to have a fish-processing plant built next door.

“There’s nothing you can do about it because Greenwood doesn’t have any zoning,” he said.

Kwoka said what “threw him over the edge” was a recent packed hearing involving a proposal to add short-term rentals to a property in town.

Kwoka said he was frustrated that the planning board was getting criticized while a town official in the audience acknowledged that the select board did not want to pursue a short-term rental ordinance. The official did not acknowledge that the planning board members’ hands were tied because of lax ordinances.

Kwoka said the town’s approach appears inconsistent.

The homeowner proposing the short-term rental properties met all requirements and the board “had no choice but to approve his application,” he said.

“The attitude is a person should be able to do whatever they want with their land and then this gentleman goes to divvy up his property and they are telling him, ‘no he can’t do that because we don’t like what he’s going to do with it.’ There is hypocrisy there,” Kwoka said.

Two other planning board members resigned around the same time as Kwoka, David Newcomb and alternate member Matt Mitchell.

“One other felt like me. It became too political,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kwoka’s wife, Anne, recently resigned as Greenwood’s code enforcement officer and has since become chair of the planning board. John Kwoka offered to serve as an alternate so the position would not remain vacant, but said selectmen were concerned about the optics of a husband and wife serving on the board together, despite it being legal.

Kwoka said he grew up in a city “war zone” and values Greenwood’s rural character.

“But I also don’t want people to come ruin Greenwood because of Greenwood’s lax ordinances.”

Kwoka said one example of ongoing issues tied to outdated ordinances is a dispute about a property on Howe Hill between contractor Michael Magner and his neighbors.

Magner’s neighbors say he is illegally operating a business in a residential neighborhood.

“I know there is no zoning, but he is not a good neighbor,” said a woman who attended the meeting and requested anonymity. “You are OK with it until it comes to your backyard.”

Kwoka said the dispute highlights shortcomings in the town’s ordinances. “The problems on Howe Hill Road may have been addressed if we had different ordinances on the books,” he said.