Earlier this month, the Planning Board held two in-person only sessions asking for public feedback on where to place new, higher housing density “MBTA zoning”.
The Planning Board is sure to provide a public recap at their next meeting. But for those who didn’t want to wait until after Thanksgiving to hear what the next steps are, I checked in with Planning.
According to Town Planner Karina Quinn, there was good turnout and collaboration in both sessions. They were able to mark up 16 maps based on public input about suggested areas for zoning overlays.
Planning is currently working to compile all the data into one map and create a spreadsheet to identify/rank the number of times areas are repeatedly being suggested. They anticipate being able to show on the map which areas were most repeatedly selected, and rank the suggested overlay areas based on how many times the public flagged them.
They hope to be able to have that for discussion at their November 27th meeting. (Since that is a regular meeting, I expect it to be available both in-person and over zoom.)
Quinn followed that through their Massachusetts Housing Partnership grant, the department is also working with Bohler Engineering to assist in creating the Overlay District Maps once the proposed overlay areas are determined.
Bohler will also assist with the Compliance Model they need to complete and submit to the state (to prove their proposed zoning meets the requirements). And they will help the board prepare a bylaw in time to hold public hearings and bring it to voters at the Annual Town Meeting in March.
To read more about the initiative, click here.
