By Adam Swift
The town council voted not to accept the Massachusetts 3A Communities Act compliance plan recommended by the planning board at a special meeting on Tuesday night.
Over the past year, the planning board has been charged with crafting and recommending a plan to comply with the state law, which aims to increase multi-family housing in MBTA and MBTA-adjacent communities. The town is supposed to have a compliance plan approved by the state by the end of the calendar year, or could risk losing out on state grant opportunities.
The plan that was recommended by the board, working with RKG Consultants, needed five votes for approval at Tuesday’s meeting, but garnered only three.
Councilors John Munson, John DaRos, and Stephen Aiello voted in favor of the recommended plan to create two 3A zoning overlay districts and use credit for previously created town zoning in the Central Business District (CBD) to reach the state requirement of creating zoning for 882 units in the town.
Councilors Pat Costigan, Rob DeMarco, Suzanne Swope, and Council President Jim Letterie voted against approval of the planning board recommendation.
Council Vice President Hannah Belcher abstained, after earlier introducing a motion to table the decision to the Dec. 3 council meeting to see if the state court comes in with a ruling on a case filed by the town of Milton challenging the legality of 3A. That motion deadlocked at 4-4 and did not pass.
Councilor Max Tassinari recused himself from the discussion and vote because he works for MassDOT, which is mentioned in the 3A law.
Several of the councilors in favor of the planning board recommendation noted that the plan would essentially create no new housing units in the town since it overlays existing developments, and that the town cannot afford to miss out on grant opportunities, especially when it comes to potential stormwater and flooding issues.
Some of those opposed to passing the recommendation noted that 3A is a bad law that oversteps local zoning, and that it was unclear how the law could change and impact the overlay districts and the CBD in the future.
The planning board recommended the creation of two distinct overlay zoning districts to comply with section 3A, Seal Harbor – covering Seal Harbor and Fort Heath, as well as Governor’s Park without any impact on the CBD.
The planning board also passed a motion outlining necessary zoning changes, including the elimination of a special permit process for applicants seeking to pay parking in lieu fee.
“The special permit requirement in this section would be removed and will be addressed during the site plan review process with the planning board,” Letterie stated reading from the motion on the planning board recommendation.
In her remarks on the issue, Swope noted that the 3A debate has awakened Winthrop as a community.
“You have emailed, attended meetings, held signs, made phone calls, gone to court, argued among yourselves, talked to our representatives, written and filed petitions, filed for an exemption,” said Swope. “Many of you have spent more time, thought, and energy on this issue than anyone around this table. Many of you want to hear the town council vote; many of you want to hear your voices heard through a town-wide vote, as this issue has a great impact on our town now and in the future.”
Swope said she has read every email, been to every meeting, read the law and the decisions of other towns during the process. She said she made the decision to vote no on the planning board recommendation based on several factors.
“The offset of the CBD is included in our 3A proposal from the planning board and it will dictate our ability to change, create, and develop what the town of Winthrop wants in the CBD,” said Swope.
Under the overlay districts, Swope said the properties under state zoning control may not change immediately but would not be under the control of the town.
“The question posed to the (attorney general’s) office offers the following response,” Swope said. “Does the passage to an MBTA compliance zone require changes to existing properties? The answer to that was no, the passage of a zoning district to comply with the MBTA community’s law does not require existing property owners who alter their properties, or to change otherwise lawful restrictions and leases of homeowner association contracts.”
However, Swope said it merely allows the multi-family housing to be developed as a right should a property owner choose to develop it.
“The future should be ours, not the state’s,” said Swope. “As an example, under the current regulations, Fort Heath, a family-owned building, could ask the town to change the configuration of the building. But the abutters, the planning board, the ordinance appeals board, the building inspector would have some oversight in those decisions that are made.”
Swope said 3A allows building by right.
She continued that there was hope that a visit by state housing secretary Ed Augustus to Winthrop would demonstrate that the town is truly different from other communities in terms of density, traffic, the location of the airport, the need for improved infrastructure, and the lack of school funding. But Swope said the visit by Augustus did not change Winthrop’s position with the state when it comes to 3A.
“We have an exemption case in the courts, why is the town not supporting it?” Swope asked. “All of you who claimed that the state might take money away, wouldn’t you like the courts to find us exempt? I don’t want to interfere with this case going forward, it would be our salvation, a vote yes would destroy our chances.”
Swope also noted that given the changing regulations of 3A, a future yes vote on a 3A compliance plan could still be possible.
“For example, if the attorney general wrote a formal letter … that said that no additional housing would be built now or in the future as a result of 3A … I would certainly reconsider my vote,” she said. “One last thought, those of you that are so positive that increases of housing will never happen here as a result of 3A might think about being willing to pay for the additional school, increased personnel, and physical infrastructure needs. If this goes through, we may find that the costs far outweigh the benefits.
“We are just one of 177 towns impacted by this law, hopefully we can join forces and successfully fight the state’s overreach.”
DaRos thanked Swope for input and for working hard on the 3A issue since it was first introduced. But DaRos said he sees the issue a little differently than Swope does.
“At the planning board’s presentation last Tuesday … I publicly thanked everyone on both sides of this issue for all their hard work and great questions in vetting the 3A law and guidelines and their implications for Winthrop,” said DaRos. “I then thanked the planning board for their tremendous effort over the past year in helping us all go to school on all things zoning, understanding the 3A law and guidelines, and for taking on the challenge of crafting a plan that would comply with the law while resulting in minimal to no impact on our already dense town.”
At the planning board meeting, DaRos said he then asked board chair Christopher Boyce to give the bottom line of the recommended plan’s effect on the town. DaRos said he had four key takeaways from the board’s recommendation, and asked Boyce if his assumptions were correct.
“Number one, how will your recommended plan change Winthrop in any way if at all?” DaRos said. “My takeaway, the impact will be zero. Chris’s response, that is correct.”
He also asked Boyce if there was any chance that the plan would result in overdevelopment such as in the Seaport District in Boston or along Revere Beach.
“My takeaway, there is no chance of that happening under this plan,” DaRos said. “Chris’s response, that is correct.”
Next DaRos said he asked Boyce if there would be any impact to the residents of the proposed overlay districts in Seal Harbor One and Three, Governor’s Park, and Fort Heath.
“My takeaway, there will be no impact to those residents,” DaRos said. “Chir’s response, you are correct.”
Finally, DaRos said he asked Boyce if the mixed-use nature of the CBD would change, and Boyce said it would not, requiring ground floor commercial development as it has for the past decade. DaRos also noted that the recommended plan also has an affordable housing component in the event that there ever is new building in the overlay districts.
“Folks, the planning board was given a tough task, and from my view, they nailed it,” said DaRos. “They nailed it so well that the plan’s overlay districts actually zone for (fewer) units than exist in those locations today. God forbid if Seal Harbor burned down tomorrow, a builder would need a whole host of special permitting to build back as many units as there are there today.”
A yes vote on the compliance plan would have allowed the town to comply with the state law while maintaining eligibility for a list of grants that are key to the future of Winthrop, especially climate resiliency grants, DaRos said.
“People in our town are hurting from flooding and it’s only going to get worse if we don’t vigorously pursue state grants for design and engineering work and federal grants for construction and implementation,” said DaRos.
He added that the council was not voting on the state law, but on the compliance plan recommended by the planning board, and asked if there were any specific parts of the compliance plan that other councilors would like to see changed. He also asked if the town could afford a lengthy legal battle over 3A compliance, noting that Milton has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in its legal battle.
Belcher noted that there are still some lingering questions when it comes to 3A, chief among them, the decision on the Milton legal case.
“I’ve been consistent from the beginning that I don’t think it is appropriate to vote without that information,” said Belcher. “We don’t have a clear picture of what the repercussions are for non-compliance, and I don’t think it is appropriate to vote without that information.”
Letterie said the 3A law and the debate over it has put an incredible amount of pressure on the town, the citizens, and the council.
“I do want to thank the yes and the no people, good points on both sides,” said Letterie. “I do want to thank our (state) representative Jeff Turco for standing with Winthrop and helping us in every way he can and being there at the meetings.”
Letterie said he believed there is very little debate that 3A is a flawed law.
“There are towns that are unique, we like to think of ourselves as unique, and we are to me unique, and there are other towns that I’m sure consider themselves unique for different reasons,” he said. “To me, one of the biggest problems with this is we are being punished for doing this work ahead of time, for being ahead of the curve. We created zoning to add additional units to help our base.”
Letterie noted that the town’s population has remained essentially unchanged at around 19,000 residents since the 1950s.
“We are aware of that and we realize that it is very hard for us to survive on a limited income stream,” said Letterie. “We don’t have a lot of a commercial base, we are one of the lowest in the state at less than six percent of our tax rate based on commercial businesses. Basically, this town is supported by its citizens.”
The town has created waterfront zoning and CBD zoning that Letterie said in time will bring in more units.
“Those units don’t bring in an astronomical amount of income to the town, especially in terms of apartments,” said Letterie. “It is small compared to single-family homes, two-family homes, and condominiums.”
One of the primary reasons the state passed 3A in the first place was because people were concerned about a housing crisis in Massachusetts, Letterie said.
“If we agree with that premise, and that premise only, this bill by all accounts, and this has been said by the yes and no people, doesn’t potentially create any units,” he said. “So why would a yes person be happy with this outcome? The answer to that, if I could be so bold to answer that question, it’s because of the potential loss of grants.
“That’s the scare tactic, and it’s worthy; there are multiple grants that are affected by this, there are no federal grants affected by this, the MSBA is not affected by this,” Letterie continued. “Originally, there were three or four grants that were tied to this, now it is in the teens.”
One of the major grants tied to 3A is the MVP grant which the town has made use of in past years to the tune of about $700,000, Letterie said.
“Obviously, money is a concern and we rely on some of these grants,” Letterie said. “The MVP grant is helping us with Morton Street. We were also denied an MVP grant earlier this year while Revere was accepted, so do I have concerns about that? I do.”
During the special meeting, Aiello stated that the 3A issue would likely go to a town-wide vote regardless of the outcome at the council level, and Letterie agreed that it was likely.
“This will probably be on a ballot sometime in the early spring,” said Letterie. “There would be a referendum process, there would be signatures that would have to be certified, and it would be on a ballot.”
Ultimately, Letterie said his position on 3A has not changed over the past year.
“I don’t think this is the right thing for Winthrop,” he said. “I know there are consequences we will deal with, but this is not the right thing for Winthop at this time.”