As a vote on the heavily debated Belmont Center overlay project draws near, conversations on the town’s next district of focus are picking up steam.
“Brighton Street is one of Belmont’s key gateways,” said Planning and Building Director Chris Ryan. “It is an area that links neighborhoods, business areas, recreational assets, and has regional connections. This plan is a framework to enhance and strengthen this area, grow the town’s commercial tax base…expand for housing opportunities, and provide additional amenities to businesses, residents, and visitors.”
Similar to the Belmont Center overlay, which is on the warrant for the March 4 special Town Meeting, officials want to create a zoning overlay for the Brighton Street corridor. According to planning officials, an overlay offers additional development opportunities while keeping the underlying zoning in place.
To date, the town has engaged residents with a survey on the proposed zoning (which received 137 responses) and involved students from the Harvard Kennedy School Urban Politics Field Lab, who presented their findings to the Select Board in December. Last week, the Planning Department hosted the first of several listening sessions.
The goal, Ryan said, is for the Planning Board to adopt the plan for consideration at its next meeting, Feb. 3, during which a public hearing is scheduled. From there, the process will include workshops and additional listening sessions, focus groups, and a number of public hearings. The hope is to present the final zoning language to Town Meeting this coming fall.
According to Ryan, the proposed plan includes four distinctive zones.
- Zone 1: Mixed-use development, representing the “town center” for this area.
- Zone 2: “Creative commercial,” encouraging through density more creative or artisanal commercial development, in addition to the existing industrial commercial properties.
- Zone 3: “The Commons,” which includes the Hill Estates apartment complex, would allow for a smaller-scale mixed-use center similar in character to Arsenal Yards of Assembly Row in Watertown. The plan includes a current height cap of four stories, with roughly 100 additional housing units beyond what is there, and potential for an underground parking garage.
- Zone 4: Remaining land in the project area, fronting on Brighton or Blanchard streets, suitable for redevelopment as mixed-use or commercial.
Ryan emphasized the district’s potential for transit- and pedestrian-oriented improvements, streetscape improvements, and the plan’s potential for commercial growth and housing opportunities. Stormwater protections via more green infrastructure would also be considered as part of the overlay.
“To see the development that’s happening just over the line— If you fast forward 20 years, 20 years, I can see Cambridge having very robust development,” said Precinct 3 Town Meeting member Wendy Etkind, who also sits on the Economic Development Advisory Committee. “It feels to me like A) this is necessary so we don’t fall behind and B) we could probably be more aggressive than four stories, because Cambridge is doing it.”
Given the town’s focus on improving the commercial tax base, however, Precinct 7 Town Meeting member Ira Morgenstern asked whether the overlay would in fact minimize the capacity for commercial development.
“We need significant commercial [development]… right now. This is probably one of the few areas we could do that,” he said.
Acknowledging Morgenstern’s point, Ryan said even with the addition of housing, no commercial area would be lost with the proposed overlay.
“We’re not taking away any commercial area that would facilitate that type of development scale and use type,” he said. “The street fronts are intended to have commercial [space] on the ground floor. If somebody wants to redevelop, they still have to provide the same or more square footage of commercial on the same parcel.”
As for whether the proposed zoning would be financially beneficial, Ryan said there would definitely be an analysis done.
An abutter to the neighborhood, Precinct 1 Town Meeting member Larry Link, focused his concerns on the impact on traffic, given the additional retail and residential traffic that would be added to a two-lane road.
“It’s definitely a big part of the plan…I think there will have to be some additional analysis on that,” Ryan responded.
Ryan added that Belmont would continue coordinating efforts with the MBTA and Cambridge, the Department of Public Works, and Belmont Light in developing elements of the overlay.
More information on the plan can be found on the town’s website ( belmont-ma.gov) on the Planning Board’s page.
