The City Council expressed their opinions on the latest MBTA zoning requirements as well as heard some important updates on affordable housing stock from Mayor Ted Bettencourt at their Industrial and Community Development Meeting on Thursday, Oct. 12.
Community Development Director Curt Bellavance approached the Committee to explain the guidelines that can help achieve the latest ordinance through examples of areas throughout the city that already have multi-family housing but would need to be further altered in order to comply by Dec. 31, 2024.
Under Section 3A, MBTA communities, or municipalities located half of a mile from an MBTA Commuter Rail, subway, bus station, or ferry terminal, must have a multi-family housing zoning district near the public transit station. Peabody is considered an “adjacent community,” meaning it is adjacent to municipalities that contain MBTA stations. Therefore, a zoning community can be located anywhere within the municipality.
Councilor at Large Thomas Rossignoll did not hold back on his disagreement with the state-wide mandate as a whole as well as how he feels Peabody has done more than enough to facilitate the creation of affordable housing.
“This is just a drastic overreach by the state,” Rossignol said. “This to me is just a blatant disregard for cities and towns and their right to have zoning. I think we’ve done a very good job as a council and as a city to try to get affordable housing in the city of Peabody without changing the landscape of our city… the fact that we have to bow down to the state when they don’t understand the amount that this council put into zoning is an abomination.”
Rossignol expressed his desire for the Committee to write a letter to the state in opposition to any and all further zoning demands.
Ward 2 Councilor Peter McGinn clarified with Bellavance that an area of the city has been identified as a designated development district and could serve as a solution to comply without any major physical or dimensional changes to the surrounding area.
“That was kind of what I was hoping the outcome would be because I agree with how you frame this,” McGinn said. “We’ve done a lot over the years I think that’s kind of the root of Councilor Rosignoll’s frustration… but if we found something that satisfies it we could be done with this relatively painlessly and easily.”
Mayor Bettencourt broke down the latest affordable housing update from June 29 earlier this year. The housing unit totals 2,595, which makes up 11.18% of the city’s total housing unit census and is well over the state’s 10% requirement. He noted that the total number includes housing projects that are not yet complete, and some may never be at all. The 132-unit Walnut Street project along with several smaller ones has not been counted, however.
“I truthfully feel very comfortable knowing that we are well above our 10%,” Bettencourt said. “I think we’re in a much better position now and expect that to continue for some time.”
