While I support improving Belmont zoning to encourage commercial and residential uses, I do not support the proposed Belmont Center Overlay District zoning in its current form. It needs work. I submitted amendments to delay the zoning so it could be fixed and resubmitted to a later Town Meeting.
The proposed zoning has errors and is incomplete: The proposed zoning refers to and relies on non-existent provisions that are yet to be drafted. The 60 pages of zoning in Warrant Articles 2 and 3 are confusing and are daunting to read.
Belmont deserves a well-drafted, understandable, enforceable, and unambiguous zoning by- law. More clarifying definitions are needed. Defined terms should be used consistently.
Clarification is needed as to how the proposed Belmont Center overlay district will interact with the various MBTA multi-family housing overlay districts in Belmont Center. Provisions with undefined, unenforceable, aspirational concepts—such as encouraging a “vibrant, walkable environment,” “ensuring harmonious relationship between different land use intensities” — need to be grouped with the aspirational “purposes” instead of being seeded among the legalistic zoning specifics. Excessive architectural details need to be reconsidered, e.g., requiring two-inch “expression lines” on multi-story buildings.
I also submitted amendments addressing parking and overnight on-street parking.
The overlay zoning for housing ignores the parking reality: It requires only 0.3 parking spaces per dwelling unit. So, doing the math, if there were 10 dwelling units built in Belmont Center, only three parking spaces would be required. BUT, typically, there would be at least one car owner in each dwelling unit. Even if the residents walk, bike, bus to work, where will they park overnight if there aren’t enough parking spaces provided for them? Will housing in Belmont Center be attractive if dwellers have no place to park overnight? Current zoning elsewhere in Belmont requires two parking spaces per dwelling unit (but only one parking space if the unit has fewer than two bedrooms), and that standard should apply in Belmont Center. Overnight on-street parking should not be allowed.
Robert E. McGaw, Louise Road