Molly Farrar
Elizabeth Dionne — sworn in this year as Belmont’s fourth ever woman on the Select Board, and the first woman in 17 years — hit the ground running when she was elected in April. Starting with a Town Meeting warrant article in November, Dionne said she is looking to rework zoning bylaws, reimagine tax revenue and streamline the number of town committees.
Her working knowledge of Belmont is extensive, after serving for seven years in Town Meeting, six on the Warrant Committee and more than three as chair of the Community Preservation Committee
“I actually think that cross pollination is really helpful because the committees really do wield a lot of power,” Dionne said. “Those three experiences gave me a lot of grounding in how the town works and also an understanding of some of the very specific challenges that Belmont faces, particularly around its finance.”
Dionne, who’s lived in Belmont since 2011, has lofty goals — mostly with streamlining Belmont’s notoriously decentralized government to address the town’s $7.2 million budget shortfall next year.
Right now, Dionne said, Belmont is struggling financially in part due to the motto that defines the town, which is plagued by too-restrictive zoning rules.
Town of Homes Needs Business Income
The “Town of Homes” now has 95% of property tax income coming from residential properties, with only 5% from commercial properties. Dionne says this is a nonpartisan issue — all can see that Belmont is “in sufficient financial pain.”
“If you’re a town of homes, you’re basically a country club, and if you’re a country club, you got to pay country club dues,” Dionne said.
But it’s not as simple as inviting businesses into Belmont’s economy. Dionne said in recent memory, the Zoning Board of Appeals denied permits for a hotel, and she says restaurants are scared away by Belmont’s complex zoning bylaws, which have several different classifications for eateries.
Dionne is backing a warrant article in the November Special Town Meeting to streamline the process for restaurant owners to open in Belmont.
The article cuts down on the different definitions of restaurants, while minimally editing the zoning regulations themselves. Fast food or large chain restaurants would still need special permits. Dionne also supports cutting the number of required parking spots for a restaurant in half from one for every two seats to one for every four seats.
Some residents are worried about that change.
Doug Koplow, a Cushing Square resident, said at a recent Planning Board meeting that cars could overwhelm side streets in parts of town lacking large municipal parking lots, and he encourages the use of signs or time limits. He also said the proposed changes to restaurant classifications might be too vague.
“With zoning, she’s really trying to take it piece by piece and try to push through what she can, and I think that she’ll be successful,” Town Administrator Patrice Garvin said, adding that she thinks this strategy will help get the restaurant changes approved.
Garvin met Dionne when she was on the Warrant Committee and said there’s camaraderie when working with another woman in the high pressure position. Anne Paulsen, the first woman elected to the Select Board in 1986, was not allowed to serve as chair.
“I see a difference. Elizabeth, I think as a woman, is more in tune with the things that I’m more in tune in with,” Garvin said. “She wants to provide the residents with a clear understanding on how things are done. She wants to move initiatives and proposals forward, and she cares about the town of Belmont.”
Driving Force Behind Reg Changes
Both Garvin and Select Board Chair Roy Epstein attribute the restaurant warrant article to Dionne’s efforts.
“[Restaurant owners are] bound by the zoning bylaw that nobody can figure out because it’s complicated, and at times unclear, and even internally contradictory,” Dionne said.
She believes Town Meeting members will be amenable to starting with restaurant zoning changes.
“Everybody likes restaurants,” she said.
Dionne said bringing this warrant article in front of Town Meeting in November is the first step toward major changes in commercial zoning in the town.
“It also is a very clear signal to voters of… positive changes coming. We’re serious about this,” Dionne said.
She added it could take two to three years to fully rewrite the zoning bylaws.
By supporting hotels, restaurants and other businesses, Dionne says her goal of an 85% residential tax to 15% commercial tax split is attainable.
“I’d love to get beyond that, but even that’s a big shift, so I’m thinking let’s start with something realistic,” she said.
Dionne’s beginnings
Dionne, an attorney representing low-income, special needs children pro bono, lived in Cambridge for 14 years before moving to Belmont. With her children grown and out of the house, her flexible schedule and financial freedom, Dionne stepped up when the seat opened.
She said there was a “hunger” for a woman to take a seat at the Select Board, and the timing worked out well for her.
“I’m in a unique situation where after my last child went to college, [I] could have gone back to a corporate law firm, [but it] wasn’t really where my heart lay, and I was fortunate that I had the option to do other things,” she said.
“It’s a learning process to be on the Select Board, but I think she started off with a bang, as I would have expected,” Epstein said. “I imagined that she could remain in office a good many terms if she chooses to.”
The Select Board is united on the plans to alter the zoning bylaws, even if they disagree on some details, Epstein said.
“We very much agree on the desirability of additional tax revenue from nonresidential sources,” Epstein said. “She’s very committed to kind of turning over every rock, particularly in terms of zoning to see what the opportunities are.”
