The Planning Board will hold its final topic-specific public hearing on the proposed Belmont Center overlay on Tuesday, July 29, at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom. After this session, the board will discuss design guidelines and then revisit the details in the draft bylaw.
The public hearing process began in July and is expected to continue through August.
“We’re going to keep it open until we’ve had at least our two discussions on the zoning bylaw as a whole and make sure the Planning Board is comfortable with the version we have at that point,” said Director and Town Planner Chris Ryan.
For the past several months, the Planning Board has held “topic-specific” public hearings on the proposed overlay, a zoning change that would allow for increased building height to buildings on Leonard Street, with plans for mixed-use development. According to Planning Board Chair Thayer Donham, this concept of topic-specific hearings is typically used to help the public have a focused discussion on a specific part of the proposed zoning so that by the end of the hearings, the entire zoning amendment has been reviewed publicly and methodologically. Next week’s meeting will deal with the ‘administration’ elements of the bylaw.
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According to Ryan, a new draft of the bylaw, which the consultants migrated to Microsoft for easier access by town officials, includes redlining to show how the draft has changed—something the public has requested several times, he said. The draft is available on the town’s website through the Planning Board webpage.
“In the process of [switching to a Microsoft document], we’re able to be a little more aggressive in terms of making the changes we thought would come down the line,” he said. “That includes taking out a lot of the preliminary zoning text that’s really kind of background and explanation that does not belong in zoning. … We put that text in a separate document which is going to be a user’s guide.”
That guide, he said, will include information such as what form-based code is, which provides guidelines to influence the physical design of a new development.
“We restructured it so some of the administrative and introductory material is at the front,” Ryan said, noting the goal is for the process to be more clearly outlined as far as going about a site plan review and how a project might be reviewed. “We added a section called ‘Introduction’ which has a ‘Purpose & Intent’ and ‘Applicability’ [section], which was all the way at the back.
Other changes include additions to the section on incentives for public benefits and the inclusion of a bicycle parking section, as there was none before. Regarding public benefits, some changes include slight increases to the maximum building height for public benefit incentives. Some examples of public benefits include greater than two floors of commercial/office space, provision of a dedicated community or public open space, the provision of additional affordable housing, green buildings, a transit-oriented development element (such as pro-bono transit passes to residents and employees), or a historic preservation incentive.
The new draft also clarifies terms and makes language changes.
“We added to the use table all of the parking requirements, because we felt like instead of having the parking requirements in one section and the use requirements in another section—since there are specific parking requirements for each use—we decided to combine them in one table,” Ryan said. “We think that’s easier for the user and clearer. Instead of having a big long parking table, we combined it to the use table.”
Some of the more substantial elements of the bylaw, however, such as specific parking requirements, building heights, and setback requirements, have not been adjusted, according to Ryan.
“None of that has changed yet,” he said. “The Planning Board needs an opportunity to discuss all of that. We’ve had all those different topical meetings. My initial thought was that those kinds of discussions would lead to changes right there and then. What happened was it was an opportunity for the Planning Board to absorb the information, and it requires further thought.”
After the meeting on July 29, the board can begin to really consider and finalize any changes to those particular elements, he said. On Aug. 5, which will be the first Planning Board meeting following the July 29 meeting, members will talk more about design guidelines, which aren’t really formally part of the zoning.
On Aug. 19, the public hearing will continue its discussion on the code, generally speaking, and on Sept. 9, a conversation on financial and parking impacts is tentatively scheduled.
The hope is to close out the public hearing by then and get a draft to town counsel to have the matter ready for the October special Town Meeting warrant.
In recent months, the project has received considerable criticism from local businesses, who fear the overlay could cause more harm than good for existing businesses. Many local business owners, as well as abutters to the project, have asked the town to complete parking and traffic studies, as well as a fiscal analysis, before proceeding to Town Meeting.
Ryan said abutters in particular are concerned about building height. To address that, the heights along the west side of Leonard Street are lower than the heights on the east side, with base heights of 2.5 stories and 3 stories, respectively, he said. Proposed in the bylaw are density bonuses, which require proof of some sort of public benefit.
“I think that to us, we think that zoning is a tool that can lead to outcomes and we’re hoping that the way we’ve calibrated the zoning for the Center will be a great balance between getting some additional development in the center,” Ryan said, “adding some height, adding some density, having some opportunity for more commercial space…and some hospitality…and some residences, which add to the customer base of the business and add life and vitality to the Center.”