City Council took the final step to achieve compliance with the MBTA Communities Act before the Dec. 31 deadline when it voted to approve changes to the zoning bylaws with a vote of eight in favor and two against at its meeting on Thursday.
The previous Thursday, the Planning Board voted to pass proposed changes to the City Council, which included the addition of two parcels of land that will be designated as Multi-family Overlay Districts, one covering Brooksby Village and another Dearborn Road.
Director of the Department of Community Development and Planning Curt Bellavance presented the decision making that went into choosing these two areas and what the impacts the amendments would have on the city.
Importantly, Brooksby Village and Dearborn Road already have a large amount of multi-family units that can be used to meet the state requirements as described in the MBTA Communities that went into effect three years ago.
As a result, the districts only have the capacity to build 138 new units, which, as stressed by Bellavance, do not have to be built.
Another change to the zoning ordinance established in 2011 is the deletion of the Designated development district-Residential Overlay to be replaced by the Multi-family Overlay District.
If the council voted to not make the amendments, millions of dollars of state grants would become unavailable to the city. According to Bellavance, his department received $9.6 million in funding in the last decade, illustrating what is at stake if the city were to not comply.
Ward 2 Councilor Peter McGinn expressed his support for passing the changes.
“This law will have little to no effect on Peabody … I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to use that Brooksby Village property for a state mandate,” McGinn said.
However, while the council members unanimously noted their appreciation done by Bellavance and his department in achieving this low-impact plan for compliance, they also expressed their displeasure with how the state has forced these zoning changes on cities and towns.
“This is something none of us would be voting for if money wasn’t tied to it,” Councilor-at-Large Thomas Rosignoll, who was one of the two no votes at the meeting, said.
“Let’s just hope that nothing’s going to happen, but with a stroke of a pen anything can change, and we can have an overlay district with construction,” Councilor-at-Large Anne Manning-Martin, who also voted no last night, added.
Ward 1 Councilor Craig Welton supported the amendments, but added his dismay that there is a limit that only 10% of units can be affordable housing. He also noted the law does not require any of the housing to be affordable housing.
The next and final step for the city is for the state to review the new zoning bylaws to confirm they comply with the MBTA Communities Act. If this is achieved, Peabody will have ensured the safety of millions of dollars in crucial funding money for the foreseeable future.
