The City Council discussed plans to comply with the state’s MBTA Zoning laws before the Dec. 31 deadline during last Thursday’s meetings.
After last month’s proposal for compliance included areas of undeveloped land that would allow for the building of around 1,700 new units, the city worked with consultants to come up with new options for districting that would ensure the least possible disruption to the community.
The result is, as said by Director of the Department of Community and Development Planning Curt Bellavance, “a product that would pass at the state level and would be the least impactful on the city of Peabody.”
Many councilors expressed their frustration with the new law that threatens to pull funding provided by the state if the affected towns and cities do not comply with adding zones known as Multi-Family Overlay Districts. With millions in grant money being at stake, Ward 6 Councilor Michael Higgins expressed it felt like the city was “being held hostage.”
Bellavance highlighted a list of grants that would be lost without compliance, amounting to $9.6 million in funding that led to an additional $6 million over the past decade. More grants the city would typically apply for were also outlined, emphasizing the importance of meeting the state’s demands.
“When I looked at it, it really came down to, ‘OK, how do we comply, meet the regulations that have been imposed upon us by the state, but still make sure we’re maintaining the integrity of our community, the integrity of our neighborhoods?’” Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt said.
The edited proposal makes a number of changes to October’s plan, which had a maximum density of 45 units per acre spread over a single district. With the option supported by the council, unit density would be much lower. The two proposed districts, Brooksby Village and the Dearborn area, would have 18 and 23 units per acre, respectively.
A proposal to draft and advertise an ordinance for a town hall that would vote on this plan was passed with an 8-1 vote. With only six weeks before the state’s deadline, a meeting is likely to be held sometime in December.
Councilor Thomas Rossignoll, the sole “no” vote, conveyed his frustration in an impassioned comment.
“The fact that we’re sitting is literally so that the state doesn’t slap our wrist and not give us money that we rightly need for our citizens. We have done everything in our power to produce housing,” he said.
Rossignoll, along with other members of the council, voiced a concern for what they saw as lacking within the law, particularly the absence of support for infrastructure. Additionally, Ward 1 Councilor Craig Welton pointed out that all but 10 percent of the units built must be market-rate housing, threatening to push out those who can only afford low-income housing.
If the proposal is voted through by town hall, the likelihood of units being added by developers is low, a point emphasized by Bettencourt.
“Even if these property owners, Brooksby Village and the Dearborn properties, wanted to take advantage of the MBTA communities act, it would take a significant investment for them,” Bettencourt said.
Nonetheless, all councilors are in agreement that by threatening to withhold millions of dollars of funding for important city projects, the state is forcing communities to introduce the Multi-Family Overlay Districting when they wouldn’t have otherwise.
Peabody residents will decide next month if these grants are too important to not pass this controversial law.
