By Adam Swift
By the end of the year, the town will be expected to present an approved multi-family zoning district to the state as an adjacent MBTA community under Section 3A of the state’s Zoning Act.
At last week’s Town Council meeting, a consultant and town officials offered a presentation on the current state of the work on the potential zoning district in town and the timeline for further refinement and discussion of the district.
The purpose of Section 3A is to encourage the production of multi-family housing by requiring MBTA communities to adopt zoning districts where multi-family housing is allowed as of right, and that meet other requirements set forth in the statute.
“We’ve heard a lot about this MBTA 3A zoning,” said Town Council President Jim Letterie. “I’ve heard misinformation. It’s difficult, there’s a lot to absorb and understand, and I understand that.”
Letterie called last week’s presentation an informational meeting, and that council members and residents would have the opportunity to ask more detailed questions at the next council meeting.
“I want the council and the public to absorb this, there is a ton of information out there and we are going to regroup as a council at the next meeting with questions we are going to submit to (town planner Rachel Kelly and consultant Zoe Mueller,” said Letterie.
Kelly said last week’s presentation contains preliminary data that was created over the past spring and summer to help Winthrop get started with the 3A MBTA community process.
“Last year, Winthrop received a small technical assistance grant from the Mass Housing Partnership, or MHP, for preliminary zoning, land analysis, mapping, and overall general assistance to start the 3A process,” said Kelly. “This was a short-term grant with a limited scope of work developed by MHP, and we were assigned Utile Architects as a consultant.”
Recently, the town was awarded a 3A MBTA communities technical assistance from the state’s Executive Office Housing and Livable Communities. Kelly said the grant will be used to hire a consultant to provide Winthrop with any remaining information needed to meet all of the state’s 3A requirements.
“The future consultant hired will be able to use the data already produced from the MHP grant and also incorporate public comment, concerns, further land and zoning analysis, and town council input and incorporate it into any zoning districts created in the zoning language to meet the requirements,” said Kelly.
The general timeline over the coming year is to have that new consultant hired by the end of February or early March, with public meetings and input gathered through the spring and summer.
“I’m hoping for 90 percent completion for early September, using the fall for the voting and potential adoption process, including town council,” said Kelly.
The 3A compliance deadline with the state for Winthrop is Dec. 31, but Kelly said she would like to see the town make a decision in the fall so that it can submit all the required documentation to the state.
Before kicking off her presentation, Mueller noted that the potential zoning districts she was presenting were not set in stone.
“It’s a good start, but things will probably change after the public outreach and town council input,” said Mueller.
Mueller said the 3A zoning requirements are a law coming from the state requiring multi-family housing to be zoned by right,” said Mueller. “That can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but in this context, we are talking about three or more units on one parcel.”
The as-of-right requirement means that development needs to be able to proceed without a special permit or additional conditional approvals.
“You can use site plan review, which gives input at the point where there is an actual development proposal, but you can’t use that site plan to (deny) the project,” said Mueller.
As a baseline, the town would not be able to require ground floor commercial units in the multi-family districts. However, in the past year, Mueller noted there was a change to 3A that does allow for some mixed-use development under strict guidelines.
The multi-family housing also can’t be restricted by age, the number of bedrooms, or the number of occupants, she added.
“There are a whole host of reasons why compliance is the best route forward,” said Mueller. She added that there is a civil enforcement and liability aspect of the requirements that could lead to a loss of funds for the town from a large variety of sources.
“There are a variety of targets the state is requiring each community to meet, and most of these requirements are customized to your community,” said Mueller. “In Winthrop, the district size you have to meet is at least 12 acres, and at least 50 percent of that district must be in one contiguous zone. The overall gross district density over the how many subdistricts you might have needs to hit at least 15 units per acre.”
Mueller said the number that most jumps out to people in Winthrop is the 882 units figure.
“That is the number of units that you have to zone for,” said Mueller. “I will emphasize, that is zoning for, it is not building units.”
In the process of potential zoning to meet the compliance numbers, Mueller said Utile looked at the town’s existing zoning and came up with a set of three potential subdistricts for multi-family housing to meet the 3A requirements.
Those potential districts are on Shirley Street, along Main and Revere streets, and near the town’s Central Business District.
Mueller said the potential districts were developed in relation to existing bus routes and commercial areas.
“The goals are to have these subdistricts collectively prioritize transit accessible areas,” said Mueller. They would also increase foot traffic for commercial areas along Main and Revere streets and in the downtown business district, she added.
“Shirley Street is an area of existing density which is already higher than the 15 units per acre targeted by the state,” said Mueller.
Mueller said there are already a lot of triple deckers in the area. She added that the district along Main and Revere is a connective tissue between a lot of the commercial districts and transportation connections in the town.
Mueller reviewed the details of the proposed multi-family districts, adding that the proposed areas are already relatively dense, with 18.5 units per acre along Shirley Street, 14 units per acre near Winthrop center, and 12.5 units per acre along Main and Revere.
The proposed zoning districts would allow for an average of 18.5 units per acre across 114 acres of the three proposed districts for a total of 2,098 potential units.
“This does result in a slightly higher outcome, and we think this is a strong approach for Winthrop” that aligns with issues and priorities that have come from the planning board and the town, Mueller said.
“The result here is not 2,098 new units, this is 2,098 units that could conceivably be developed across all the districts if you removed everything that was there now and build from scratch,” said Mueller. “I know the number is big, but it does not mean an expectation of this many new units, it is talking about is it possible for someone to build up to that number over, say, 50 years time.”
If the town opted to go with a lower density for its zoning districts, it would end up having to zone more area for the multi-family districts, Mueller said.
“This is not a final, set in stone district at this point, so there is still room for revision and reconstruction of some of the elements,” said Mueller.