The Roberts Wrap Up: A Summary of the Feb 10th Meeting
- mcc021557
- Feb 17, 2025
- 4 min read
The City Council Planning and Permitting Committee meeting on Wednesday Feb. 26th at 6PM to discuss zoning in neighborhoods will be in chambers or over zoom.
The next meeting about the Salem St Corridor is with the Community Development Board, on Wednesday, March 5th on zoom:
Alicia Hunt has promised a room at city hall to view and participate in the meeting for those who need it.
The City Council is likely to vote on the zoning on Tuesday March 11th at 7PM during their regular meeting.
Please plan to attend these meetings.
The Salem St Corridor City Presentation was held on Monday, Feb. 10th at 6:30PM. The presentation itself took about 1 hours, but the Q&A ran until about 9:45PM. The purpose of the meeting was for the city to let us know what was going to happen with the new zoning, but that isn’t really how it went.
A large crowd gathered to hear the presentation and ask their questions. Many of them had spent a good deal of time learning about the proposed zoning. Thanks to all who have been following along and had their questions ready.
Alicia Hunt let us know that she and her staff meet with Innes (consultant) weekly, so lots of work happens outside of the public meetings (our efforts to gain that work product have been refused).
There was a good deal missing from this presentation. They mentioned heights and that incentives were required to reach the 6 stories in the Red zone and the 4 stories in the Blue zone, but didn’t go too far into those incentives. There was no mention of the bench + fountain = 1 story or similar incentives, but the public was largely already aware. The crowd was unhappy with the sanitized lack of information shared.
There was no talk of the “desirable uses” allowed as of right on Salem St. There was a heavy emphasis on showing one story commercial and saying that it would “conform to zoning” with the changes. They said that no one has talked about reducing parking down under 1.5 spaces per unit but she added YET. Parking is on the agenda for later this spring.
They emphasized that this is what is called for in the Comprehensive Plan over and over. That Salem was identified as a corridor then (the city seemed to have made that decision as we could find no commentary from residents that informed that decision). Most of the crowd informed that they had not heard of any opportunities to participate in that plan.
Emily Innes said a lot of what we see on Salem St is not what is in the zoning. She mentioned more than once that our C1 (Haines Square) and APT2 (between Fellsway and Malden line) allow for 15 story apartment buildings by right. Also noted that we don’t have any lots that large in those districts to do that besides the Target lot, so she was lowering the heights to the maximum allowed in Commerical which is 6 stories (despite there not being buildings that high on the ground, just in writing). She emphasized that they were going to zone across the city and not just here (neighborhoods are being zoned now and we will be writing on that soon – but we again will be getting the highest neighborhood density from that as well).
The explanation for lowering the lot size by 70% from 10k to 3k was that we had small lots here and she wanted to make them all conforming and eligible for max height. They attempted to show heights based on blocks. They also illustrated the step backs that after 42 feet can offer a buffer from the higher floors (these are waivable, but that was not mentioned). Over and over, she mentioned that people did have to change anything when the zoning changed, this just made it easier to do so.
She then transitioned into Green Score and how that could allow for more green space. No Green Score is required in the YELLOW multiple residence. It was not mentioned that the Green Score can be waived and that lot coverage of 80% doesn’t leave a lot of space for green, but they do plan to count green roofs as green space despite them having no community benefit.
The presentation ended and many felt like they knew more about the zoning before they walked in. A good deal was skipped. Lot coverage (80%), easy incentives for additional floors (fountain + bench), waivers for Green Score and step backs and setbacks – all of these items were not mentioned. It was a very simplistic presentation that sought to show only the things that they found to be harmless or less objectionable.
My takeaway from that presentation is the same as what I think when they do their meeting PowerPoints. They share very little and there is a complete lack of detail. If you don’t know the zoning, then you might believe that it is only small and incremental change. The Q&A portion went on for over 2 hours. We will unpack that more tomorrow.
Please also look out for some blogs on the neighborhood zoning. It is coming here, and we are going to see 3 story buildings with up to 3 units on 3k lots up every single side street. Some neighborhoods are going to keep their character, but we will be more vulnerable to flippers who can outbid a homeowner because they stand to profit by adding one to two units with no need for site plan review as it is under the 6 unit to trigger it. So, stay tuned. Stay active. We will be working on more for you.
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