Editor’s Note: Town Meeting members will vote on zoning changes mandated by the MBTA Communities Act. Leading up to the Nov. 18 meeting, The Voice will explore the nuances of the zoning changes and the reasons behind the change. This week, how the process played out in Belmont. Next week, a statewide view of the impetus behind the law.
By Mary Byrne, Belmont Voice staff
In 2021, then-Gov. Charlie Baker signed a law that set into motion three years’ worth of meetings, forums, and workshops in Belmont as officials and residents grappled with the new zoning they were tasked with creating.
The result of that grappling — one of two maps outlining areas rezoned under the new law — will be presented to Town Meeting members on Nov. 18 for discussion and approval.
That law, the MBTA Communities Act, requires towns served by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), such as Belmont, to create at least one zoning district of reasonable size where multi-family housing is permitted and meets other criteria, including:
- a minimum of 15 units per acre;
- located not more than a half mile from a commuter rail station, subway station, ferry terminal, or bus station;
- no age restrictions, and suitable for families with children.
Additionally, because Waverley Square is the town’s largest district, it must — as the “contiguity district” — contribute 50% of the total acreage of re-zoned land. The final maps show that about 27 acres, or about 53%, of the 50 acres of new zoning, are in Waverly Square.
“We were really trying to split our contiguity between the Center and Waverley,” said Town Planner Chris Ryan. “We have two stations; why can’t we use both radii? Because of the technicality of the way contiguity is calculated, [the state] wouldn’t let us do that. … We really wanted to spread the wealth around town.”
Belmont, which is classified as a “Commuter Rail” community,” is required to zone for at least 1,632 new housing units. The law does not mandate the construction of such units. The final deadline for compliance is Dec. 31, 2024.
MBTA Advisory Committee
In Belmont, the first order of business was for the Select Board to establish the MBTA Communities Advisory Committee. Initially, the committee didn’t include a member of the Select Board, but when a vacancy opened, Select Board member Roy Epstein stepped into the role. The group, charged with coming up with a strategy for creating a compliant map, was made up of representatives from the Select Board, Housing Trust, Planning Board, Economic Development Committee, the Board of Assessors, the Historic District Commission, and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Implementation Committee.
According to Epstein, the town hired the Metropolitan Area Planning Council as its consultant. MAPC helped the committee conceptualize the subdistricts within the zoning map. After a long, drawn-out process, the consultants came up with some initial maps for consideration at the end of 2023.
Epstein said those maps had significantly higher unit counts than the law required. Eventually, the counts were brought down, and they were presented to the community in early 2024. At that stage, Epstein introduced his own map.
In March 2023, the advisory committee passed along its recommendation, which was essentially the map created by Epstein, to the Planning Board.
“The Advisory Committee met about 60 times between early 2022 and April 2024,” said Ryan, adding that each meeting included a public comment period. “It got to a certain point where they came up with a map proposal and then turned it over to the Planning Board.
Planning Board
Planning Board Chair Taylor Yates said that once the map was in the Board’s hands, it was time to revise and create the bylaw.
“When we got the handoff, it was right after the Milton fiasco,” recalled Yates, referring to the town of Milton’s decision to reject an effort to amend zoning. “I started calling towns that I felt like were similar to us and asking them how they were handling it.”
Ryan, who stepped into the role a year ago, said that in his own research, he reached out to Arlington, Lexington, Concord, Watertown, Newton, and Needham. Yates, meanwhile, said he reached out to Arlington, Medford, Malden, and Methuen.
“A lot of that had to do with protecting our commercial tax base,” Yates said. “Most of what was pulled out was commercial lots. The second thing we did was developing dimensional requirements.”
With opinions differing on whether to include certain districts or not — particularly the inclusion of commercial districts — two maps emerged.
Eventually, the town also switched to Utile, the architecture and design firm, as its consultant. Other consultants brought on include RKG Associates, who were asked to complete a physical impact analysis, and Landwise Advisors, which partnered with Utile to do further analysis on the mandatory mixed-use subdistrict and a financial feasibility study of the Purecoat North site on HIttinger and Brighton streets.
In total, the planning process has cost roughly $135,000, about $75,000 of which was paid for by the state, according to Ryan. The rest came out of Belmont’s pocket, “cobbled together” largely from the Planning Department budget, he said.
The result of the process has been two almost identical maps, both sent to the state for compliance review. One map includes the Purecoat North site in place of a portion of lower Belmont (along the Watertown line), while the other includes lower Belmont but not Purecoat North.
“I learned early on that Needham was going forward with two maps in a friendly way,” Ryan said. “It’s not like there were two competing maps.”
But now, he can’t envision a path where both maps don’t come before Town Meeting.
“It depends on two things,” he said. “One, what the state’s pre-compliance review says, and two, closing the loop on the analysis of the Purecoat site.”
Ultimately, the town plans to place the Planning Board-approved map, which does not include the Purecoat site, on the warrant for the November special Town Meeting. The second map, however, will have to be introduced as an amendment.
In addition to those 60 meetings, four public forums and a website for submitting public comment, the town hosted additional public forums in preparation for Town Meeting. The first took place on Oct. 15 at the Beech Street Center. A second was scheduled to take place Oct. 22.
“We did what we had to do,” said Ryan, describing the maps. “We didn’t do more, we didn’t go crazy.”
Taylor added that throughout the process, “sensitivity to the neighborhoods” has been an “overriding factor.” He also emphasized that this law is not an affordable housing law, but one that will eventually help increase the housing supply in the future.
“The housing created through this, we know that only a small portion is actually “big A” affordable,” Ryan said. “But a lot of it is workforce housing, or housing for seniors, housing for empty nesters, housing for young families or single people starting in the workforce now. It’s the teacher, it’s the firefighter, it’s the police officer, it’s the government worker in town hall that would like to live closer to work, like to live in the community they work, but there’s no way they can because there isn’t a product available to them. That is the overwhelming positive that could come out of this.”
