Council, Planning Board Hold 3A Public Hearing

By Adam Swift

The town council and planning board held a joint public hearing on the planning board’s proposed MBTA Communities Act 3A compliance plan last week at the Deleo Senior Center.

Last year, the town council voted not to submit an MBTA 3 compliance plan recommended by the planning board.

Thanks to a State Supreme Judicial Court ruling earlier this year, the town council had additional time to reconsider a compliance plan, with the town being in compliance until the middle of July. The 3A act requires communities to establish zones for multi-family housing in communities with or adjacent to MBTA transportation.

In January the state court ruled that communities act is constitutional, but that the current housing guidelines are unenforceable. The new state ruling establishes that 3A is now a state regulation, rather than guidelines.

At last week’s public hearing, Town Manager Tony Marino and the planning board said that other than the change from guidelines to regulations from the state, little in 3A has changed.

The plan submitted by the planning board is essentially the same as the one the town council voted not to accept last year. The planning board will hold a vote to officially recommend the plan to the city council, which will then have another opportunity to vote on whether to accept it or not.

At last week’s public hearing, there was discussion among those in favor of passing the compliance plan stating that a failure to pass it would result in a possible lawsuit for the town and the loss of potential grants that could assist Winthrop with its much-needed flood mitigation efforts.

Those against approval of the compliance plan noted that the 3A law is a major overstep by the state forcing the hands of the town, and added that the Winthrop Says No to 3A group has several active court suits for both exemptions and in opposition to 3A.

“The courts ruled that the guidelines weren’t legal, so they had to make regulations,” said Marino. “The state then went through the process and promulgated new regulations with a public comment period. Essentially, other than a few minor changes, it didn’t impact us, it put out the same regulations that mirrored the guidelines.”

Marino said the town contacted its consultant on 3A, RKG, and asked if the old plan recommended by the planning board worked under the new regulations and they stated that it did.

“The 3A Communities law requires all communities with access to the T, rail, and bus to add zoning to allow for increased density beyond single-family dwellings,” said Marino. “Winthrop already meets these density requirements in many areas, and has multi-family buildings, but is not zoned for what exists today.”

“3A in Winthrop requires adding overlay districts to allow for the 882 units,” said Marino. “We did get 221 credits, off-site units, for the (Central Business District), it didn’t change any of the zoning down there, but because of the work we already did, we get to back 221 off of the 882, which brings us back down to zoning for 661.”

The planning board proposal that was brought forward last year contains two overlay districts that are not currently zoned for the existing density, Marino said.

“No new units can be built under this proposal,” he said. “The units already exist at Seal Harbor and Governor’s Park.”

The zoning overlay districts would actually allow for fewer units than already exist on the sites, Marino said.

“Seal Harbor Road parcels, there are 394 existing units, if this goes through, then the 3A zoning would only be zoned for 333 units,” said Marino. “Governor’s Park, again, 393 existing units, would be zoned for 336.”

Marino said the proposal complies with the state law without allowing for any new units and that non-compliance can and would lead to a loss of grant funding, especially for infrastructure, as well as forced compliance from the state.

During the public hearing, Cassie Witthaus said that the discussion over 3A has gone in circles for too long, with some of the council members refusing to acknowledge facts and the consequences for their actions.

“You are all elected to lead and make decisions for our community that are fiscally responsible,” Witthaus said. “Members of this community just came together and made extensive efforts to pass an override for our schools and a bond to fund the new fire station. There is a belief around town that the council manufactures crises and then asks the community to bail the community out.”

Witthaus said the town has already done the work to provide multi-family housing in the town, and that it just needs the zoning to reflect that work.

“Our community could benefit from the grant programs that Winthrop will now be ineligible for if leadership continues to disregard compliance requirements,” she said.

Diana Viens of Winthrop Says No to 3A said she felt bad for people that believe that voting in a compliance plan for 3A will do anything to bring grant funding into the town for flooding or other infrastructure projects.

“In terms of the grants, we don’t get any money from the four grants stated in the law, we have said that multiple times, we get zero dollars,” said Viens. “With respect to the 13 grants that 3A compliance has taken into consideration for which are in the regulations, which are about to get tossed, by the way … we get approximately, and we have done the math, $2.18 per person per year. So if you value your freedom, perhaps everyone will talk up $2.18 per year to deal with that.”

Viens said Winthrop Says No to 3A has two active exemption cases in Superior Court, as well as a challenge to the emergency and now permanent regulations.

“In our unfunded mandate exemption, we’ve detected $1.2 million in direct costs associated with compliance with 3A,” she said.

Michael Herbert also spoke in opposition to the 3A compliance, noting that of the people he talks to who know about the regulations in town, the vast majority do not want them. He noted that there are already numerous multi-family housing projects going up around the town.

“We’re taking care of it ourselves already, so why do we need people from outside telling us what to do?” he said.

Vasili Mallios noted that the town cannot guarantee that the 3A compliance plan will result in no new housing.

“This law states, in the letters that other communities have received, that if the guidelines were to change, you must comply,” Mallios said. “So if they change the district, they change the number of units per acre, we’re going to have to comply, and I believe we had a previous councilor who said … let’s just comply now and if they change it again, then we won’t back off. Well, it is a lot harder to take it off the books once we comply; just say no, make it easy, we move on.”

Ward 6 Councilor John DaRos made several comments on the 3A compliance plan as the chair of the finance subcommittee and a member of the town’s climate commission.

“I’ve heard a lot of people talk about, where are the grants? What grants have we received in the past and why is it a big deal?” he said. “We’ve received over $1 million in municipal vulnerable communities, MVP, grants over the past decade to help us with various projects around climate resiliency. We have met as a climate commission every month since last August; we have eight defined hotspots in the town, including some that have been mentioned here tonight.”

DaRos said that addressing the climate issues in those areas around the town could cost at least $50 million. He added that the town currently has $5.5 million in reserve funds.

“You do the math,” DaRos said. “I totally appreciate people’s sentiments around development; when you look at Revere Beach, you see how it has been developed; when you look at the Seaport and you see how it has been developed … is there a reason sometimes to mistrust, particularly for-profit developers? Yes.

“The reason I am voting yes for this plan is because of the great work of the planning board, because their task was to thread the needle, comply with a state law that we must comply with or face the consequences … but do it in a way that results in zero impact to the town,” DaRos continued. “If you don’t agree with absolute zero, hopefully you will agree that it is a minimal impact.”

Council President Jim Letterie noted that the intent of the law was for the state to address the housing crisis and needed MBTA communities to address that crisis.

“The goal of the state is to not have zero units built in the town; that’s just not the intent of the law,” said Letterie. “I look at the grants, and although we are not reliant on every grant out there, and we have asked for grants in the past and we have received some, and haven’t received most. There is a cost to every grant we do.

“We would all love to get $75 million in grants and fix every issue we have; that’s not going to happen,” he continued.

Letterie said that on one side of the coin, the town is expecting that if it complies with 3A, it is going to get state money, but he said it is not guaranteed. He added that there can also be no guarantee that there will be zero new units as a result of the law.

“I think most, pro and con, would agree that it is not a great law,” he said. “There’s a lot of bad laws … but I think most would agree that this is not a very good law. It’s been incredibly divisive to many communities.”

The council president noted that Winthrop has been ahead of the curve in the state when it comes to zoning for and building multi-family housing.

“We did a lot of zoning over the last 20 years between the CBD and the waterfront district and such that have created a tremendous amount of potential units,” said Letterie. “Not all of them are built yet, but it looks like many will be built.”