SOUTHBOROUGH – By a vote of 281 to 273, Southborough voters approved an article to amend the zoning bylaw to include the MBTA Communities Overlay Districts (MCOD) during Town Meeting on Sept. 30.
“We do believe that this is a step towards improving our zoning for higher density and more diverse housing,” said Planning Board member Marnie Hoolahan.
Southborough proposed three districts as part of its zoning.
“The districts proposed, we believe, will ensure a gradual impact over time; that there wouldn’t be a one-stop, ‘Let’s just develop everything right now.’ And we believe that we contribute to our community responsibility towards easing the housing crisis,” she said.
What is proposed
The Planning Board has held more than 45 meetings in regards to MBTA zoning.
Three districts were proposed under the article.
District 1A includes 6.1 acres near Woodland Road and Blendon Woods Drive, and 1B is made up of six acres on Southville Road. District 2 is Madison Place, which is 29.5 acres, and District 3 is 14.6 acres on St. Martin Drive.
According to Hoolahan, 90% of the housing inventory in Southborough is single-family homes, and the average selling price is $1.1 million.
“We don’t have a lot of diversity [in the housing inventory]. We don’t have townhouses, condominiums, condos, apartments. There’s really no place to downsize,” she said.
Signed into law in 2021, the MBTA Communities Act requires 177 cities and towns to adopt zoning that allows multifamily development by right. As part of the law, Southborough needed to zone 50 total acres, with 10 of those acres being located within a half mile of the MBTA station. The zone should also be located within walking distance to public transportation, bikeways and bus stops; not have any bedroom or age restrictions; and allow for a minimum gross density of 15 units per acre. Ten percent of the units within any development would be affordable, with the remaining 90% priced at market rate.
Hoolahan noted that the zoning permit process cannot be discretionary, though the town will maintain site plan control, with the major site plan review application coming before the Planning Board.
Any projects would be required to meet the town’s zoning code, including in regards to height, frontage and the minimum lot area.
Southborough is required to have the zoning in place by Dec. 31. If the zoning was not passed, the town would be ineligible and have a reduced consideration for certain grants, and there would be the possibility of civil enforcement action by the Attorney General’s Office.
Resident Freddie Gillespie, who lives on Southville Road and has worked with other residents, presented on behalf of the opposition to the bylaw. She asked Town Meeting to vote “no” and for a pause and have the bylaw return to Town Meeting before Southborough is out of compliance.
In regards to the Southville district, Gillespie said people who live near the lots were not in the room when the lots were chosen. She also said the area is the “most environmentally-sensitive area in the town besides around the reservoir.”
She called for the Select Board and Planning Board to reach out to other towns that haven’t passed their MBTA zoning bylaw and go to the state and argue “that this one size doesn’t fit all.”
“What I mean by that is not the number of units and the capacity of the different areas and the dimensional, it’s some towns with small towns and villages – it’s not appropriate to have the 15 units an acre. Period,” said Gillespie.
Gillespie and several other residents brought up Milton, saying to wait to see what is decided in the case. Attorney General Andrea Campbell filed a lawsuit against Milton after residents voted against their zoning plan.
“Something could change,” said Gillespie.
She likened zoning to an elevator.
“If an elevator ain’t quite right, you don’t get on,” Gillespie said. “If the zoning code isn’t quite right, you don’t pass it. And this ain’t right.
RECC
Town Meeting also approved an article recommending that the Select Board exercise its authority to enter into an intermunicipal agreement with the Metrowest Regional Emergency Communications Center, which includes Westborough and Grafton.
The approval comes after a team was formed to evaluate joining a regional dispatch.
