WHITMAN – The draft MBTA Communities warrant article is being prepared for Town Meeting but may be postponed until an October Town Meeting.
The 2021 state law requires MBTA communities to “have at least one zoning district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right” and is intended to address the housing crisis in Massachusetts and approximately 177 communities are subject to it.
The Multi-Family Zoning Requirement also calls for these housing communities to have a minimum gross density of 15 units per acre, the housing must be no more than 0.5 miles from a commuter rail station, subway station, etc., and no age restrictions.
The Planning Board held a public hearing, on the proposed chance to the town’s protective Zoning bylaw, in Town Hall auditorium on the issue on Monday, April 8. That board also met Tuesday, April 9 to vote on putting that amendment up for a vote at the annual Town Meeting or to submit it to the Attorney General’s office for prior approval for possible revision before putting it before Town Meeting voters.
“This would take several months,” Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said. “It would need to go before a special Town Meeting in the fall.”
The deadline for compliance is Dec. 31, 2024 or affected towns will no longer be eligible for funds from the Housing Choice Initiative, the Local Capital Projects Fund, or the MassWorks infrastructure program.
Additionally, towns that fail to comply with the zoning changes may be subjected to civil enforcement.
Carter added that the draft language had been reviewed by town counsel, resulting in several revisions, forwarded to the Planning Board and incorporated into the draft article. She said she will update the draft article to send out for the Select Board’s review ahead of its April 23 vote.
“However, in speaking to the attorney, we were weighing out – a lot of towns are dealing with this right now – on whether or not it’s best to put forth the article and get approval from the state before we vote it,” she said. “Some towns have approved the article, sent it to the state, and then had issues.”
Select Board member Justin Evans said his understanding is that Judy Barrett, the town’s consultant tasked with drawing up the bylaw, believes the town will be in compliance with the proposed bylaw.
“Some of the minor amendments they made, even as late as yesterday, are to reduce the frontage required within the zone to 40 feet to be more aligned with properties that already exist within that bylaw,” he said. “That’s something that the attorney general has specifically called out.”
He noted that Abington had sent their revisions to the state and didn’t hear back from the state before their town meeting.
“So they voted is as-is and they will eventually get feedback from the state,” he said. “We don’t have currently a Town Meeting scheduled for the fall [and] I don’t particularly like calling it for one issue.”
But he said it was a course of action he would recommend.
He pointed to the marijuana bylaw, on which the state flagged one small provision for change after Town Meeting had voted, and that change was made.
“It was pretty much non-consequential,” he said. “The downside of putting forth an amendment that’s not pre-approved by the state would be striking small components of it.”
If those changes took the town out of compliance or ran afoul of what the town intended, it would have to be corrected at next year’s annual Town Meeting.
“I like the project,” board member Shawn Kain agreed. “I like a number of components connected to the project. I think talking about it at the Town Meeting would be helpful in many ways and the [downside] is relatively minor for doing it now as opposed to waiting.”
Vice Chair Dan Salvucci said he had an MBTA Advisory Board meeting that day and discusses with MBTA general manager his concern that, because towns are voting on the bylaw, that safety issues need to be addressed, especially where it would mean more pedestrians and was told that is being looked into and come up with aninformational safety program.