Unanimous Support for MBTA 3A Plan from Select Board, Planning Board and Finance Committee
Last night capped off a week when the Planning Board, Select Board, and Finance Committee all voted unanimously to support Weston’s 3A Zoning Bylaw for the October 15th Town Meeting. It’s a testament to the efforts by the combined Select and Panning Boards to craft a plan that garnered such positive support and is the best possible plan for 3A compliance.
Now it’s up to YOU. Vote YES at Town Meeting!!
Leslie Glynn, Planning Board Chair outlined the plan in detail at Wednesday’s hearing, and Lise Revers, Select Board Chair described the legal status of the 3A law. The legal status was described as settled, all suits claiming the 3A law is not legal, or enforceable, or is an unfunded mandate have been lost. The Mass Supreme Judicial Court has confirmed that 3A law is legal, the Attorney General can enforce it with legal action, and it is not an unfunded mandate. Ms. Revers indicated Weston is obligated to follow the law. Should the town reject the new 3A plan again the town risks significant fines and legal fees, loss of state subsidies for schools, roads, and other infrastructure as well as potential loss of control over 3A zoning to the courts that could impose multifamily zoning within residential areas of town where we don’t want it.
Ms. Glynn and Ms. Revers described the plan currently being proposed as having a wide number of benefits for the town over previous versions including meeting some long standing Weston housing issues The plan avoids disrupting residential areas in Weston, something the base requirements of the law could threaten if the courts design a plan for us if we reject our own plan. The law requires rezoning at least 50 acres with 40% near a transit station. Nearly all the area near the Kendal Green train stop is residential and nearly all the rest of town is residential, all of which could be vastly transformed if we were to not pass our own plan and leave it to the state to design one for us. This plan essentially limits likely development to just the existing commercial property at 133 Boston Post Rd., (the nearly 80 acre site of an existing office/lab building, formerly the Biogen location), owned by Boston Properties BXP. Our plan protects the residential character of Weston.
Further, the Planning Board deftly negotiated with BXP to design a potential development layout on the site that would make any buildings invisible from anywhere in Weston and create a very attractive diverse neighborhood feel for potential residents. The 3 phase plan includes low townhomes authorized near the rail trail at the North end of the site mostly beyond the quarry pond. Phase two authorizes multifamily housing where an existing parking lot is located such that it is not visible outside of the site. Only if the existing office building is demolished can a third phase be created for senior housing, something the town badly needs.
These possible developments offer 15% of the units reserved for affordable housing needs (helping with 40b compliance), multiple options for downsizing for older town residents (may friends have relocated out of town because of the lack of adequate options within Weston), more affordable options for town workers and grown Weston children coming home, and possible elderly housing geared to their needs.
This is all enabled by the logical and potentially actual relocation of the train station to the intersection of the existing active rail line and the rail trail, about ½ mile to the east of the Kendal Green station. This change resulted from deft joint negotiations by BXP and Planning Board with the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Cities (the 3A law regulator) led by Planning Board member Al Aydelotte. This allowed all of the BXP campus to be within the ½ mile radius of the potential train station, allowing Weston’s current 3A plan to avoid any residential areas and focus on the commercial land.
Two other areas being rezoned are proposed for fewer housing units than already exist or are being built, assuring that the owners would not expand their developments under 3A zoning. The last proposed 3A location is Merriam Village, a 62 unit private non-profit affordable elderly apartment complex on Village Rd. off of Merriam St. It is a 15.5 acre site with approximately 8 unused acres that is being rezoned for 40 more units with a 3 acre forested buffer to its closest neighbors. There is a 5 year waiting list for apartments there, and as a COA needs study has shown, a significant need for this type of housing exists among Weston residents. The expansion of Merriam Village to meet our elderly population’s needs would require Town Meeting approval to change the agreement with the town that limits the number of apartments and significant private fund raising to support construction. Consequently, any new housing there is well into the future, should it ever occur.
We at Engage Weston laud the huge effort invested by Leslie Glynn and the other Planning Board members in guiding the town through this nearly 5 year process to create a plan that not only satisfies the law but also provides significant benefits from our town. Your help is needed to make this plan succeed. Your YES vote is needed at Town Meeting October 15 to approve this much improved plan to counter whatever negative sentiment is left over from last December’s vote on the issue.
Please come to Town Meeting, and please vote YES.
Sincerely,
Alan Day, Alice Benson, Nancy Piedra, Tom Timko, Stefania Mallett
