Weston’s Updated 3A MBTA Zoning Proposal for Town Vote 10/15/2025

Weston has finalized its 3A bylaw proposal for a vote at the next Town Meeting on October 15th. The state requires that multifamily zones be created to allow for at least 750 housing units covering 50 acres with an average density of 15 units an acre. The state does not require that any housing be built, only that we create areas with zoning that would allow multifamily housing if the owner ever wanted to build it. Weston’s new 3A plan improves the previous one by zoning multiple areas under 3A that won’t be built out and by increasing the benefits for Weston by increasing affordable housing and elderly housing more than is required under 3A in other areas more likely to be built out.

All efforts by Weston and other towns to contest the legality and enforceability of the law have failed and non-compliant towns re already losing funds they were depending on for schools and other purposes even before the legal enforcement deadline extended by the Attorney General ends on December 31, 2025. In a recent update the AG reminded towns that non-compliance puts towns and potentially town officials at risk of enforcement under state and federal fair housing laws.

Seemingly realizing avoidance is not an option, the Select and Planning Boards have revised the December 2024 version of the 3A plan with many changes in response to resident concerns. The revised proposal rezones four areas:

• the 133 Boston Post Road office campus owned by Boston Properties BPX (formerly the Biogen office site)
• The existing development already underway at 751 Boston Post Rd. This helps Weston qualify for 3A without needing to add any units beyond those already being built.
• the existing buildings on Norumbega Road on the other side of I95 from Weston housing Charles River Rehabilitation and Maplewood, a nursing home. Again, this helps Weston qualify for 3A without needing to add any units beyond those already built.
• the existing non-profit affordable elderly housing complex, Merriam Village on Merriam Street. This already has 62 apartments The additional units zoned under the new 3A proposal for this area don’t have development funding but could be expanded if the non-profit decides to do so and raises the funds

Many areas included in last December’s proposal are no longer being considered, including:

• NO LONGER INCLUDED: the old Liberty Mutual site near 128 on Rt 30 (being developed as lab space under the name of Greatlands)
• NO LONGER INCLUDED: the tennis club on the western end of Rt 30 in Weston
• NO LONGER INCLUDED: the Granite Brook landscape supply company site on Church St.

The Boston Properties (BPX) area was included in last December’s proposal, but the details have changed quite a bit in the new revised proposal. The town worked with BPX and the 3A controlling agency, EOHLC, to get the operational location of the center of the ½ mile around a commuter rail station moved from Kendal Green on Church St., to allow the ½ mile within which Weston needed to zone for 40% of its required units and land to cover all of the BPX property as opposed to only 6 buildable acres near the rail trail (as would have been the case if the Kendal Green train stop had continued to be designated as the center of the ½ mile area). The previous requirement would have required 300 units be zoned for those 6 acres requiring a high density and building height that leaders felt to be out of character with the town. By focusing the required ½ mile circle on a potential new T station accessible from both Weston by footbridge and Waltham by car, the proposed BPX zoning density can be much lower and the allowed building heights be much more in character with Weston.

The details of the current 3A zoning proposal are published by the town at https://www.westonma.gov/1884/3A-MBTA-Multifamily-Zoning.

Further, BPX agreed with the town to roll out its potential development in three phases, all of which will designate 15% of the units for those qualifying for affordable housing units:

1. 100 town homes in the vein of Highland Meadows, proposed for the northernmost area between the quarry pond and the rail trail
2. 280 apartments near the current parking area just north of the existing office building, which is an area invisible from any abutters,
3. 100 units of elderly housing that could only be built in the place of the existing office building (i.e. if the office building is ever taken down).

A strong fear a few years ago when Boston Properties proposed housing on their site, and again at the December Town Meeting vote on 3A, was that possible a second entrance to the BPX site might be created That has been eliminated. The revised proposal includes only a foot bridge across the active rail line, providing pedestrian access to a potential new commuter rail station on the Waltham side of the rail line from the Weston BPX properties, should a commuter rail station ever be built.

We at Engage Weston support this proposal and encourage residents to vote yes at Town Meeting on October 15th. It eliminates nearly all abutter concerns by reducing the impact of new development where it is likely, by eliminating areas where abutters had concerns, and by rezoning areas for 3A purposes that are already built out and will never be developed for new housing beyond their existing uses.

The only possible new housing besides the BPX site is Merriam Village, an affordable elderly housing complex set up originally with support from the Town of Weston and a group of public-spirited residents in the 1970’s. Any new apartments at Merriam Village are limited by deed and also agreement with the town to be used only for affordable elderly housing.

We believe that this proposal benefits the town as much as we see is possible within the guidelines governing compliance with the 3A MBTA multifamily zoning law. It provides for more affordable and elderly housing than the state requires under 3A and limits likely actual development in ways that minimize impact on neighbors and new traffic by locating the vast majority of that development adjacent to a planned commuter rail station.

Please attend Town Meeting on October 15th and vote yes to support our community.

Sincerely,
Alan Day, Alice Benson, Nancy Piedra, Tom Timko, Stefania Mallett