SHREWSBURY – Shrewsbury’s MBTA zoning saga isn’t quite over.
On Dec. 5, Town Clerk Sharyn Thomas certified the signatures of 1,706 Shrewsbury residents who petitioned for a townwide referendum on MBTA zoning. On Dec. 10, the Select Board recognized the petition; the board is expected to set a date for the referendum during its Dec. 17 scheduled meeting.
After about two hours of debate on Nov. 18, Town Meeting voted 123-50 to approve Article 9, which created a “Transit Oriented Development Overlay District,” or the MBTA zoning district, in the southeast corner of town along Route 20. Town Meeting approved a contiguous, 118-acre zone containing three main parcels: Shrewsbury Commons, 409 South Street and Emerald Run.
In the wake of the decision, a group of Shrewsbury residents started petitioning for a referendum to rescind Town Meeting’s approval of the MBTA zone. According to Section 16 of Chapter 553 of the Acts of 1953, residents can call for a referendum within 10 days (exclusive of Sundays and holidays) of the date of the Town Meeting vote. In that time, at least 5% of Shrewsbury’s registered voters must sign the petition.
Residents mobilized the weekend following Town Meeting, standing in front of supermarkets and hardware stores to gather the necessary signatures. On Dec. 2, the deadline for submitting the signatures, the residents had gathered 1,843 signatures, eclipsing the five-percent threshold of 1,349 residents.
“We had really great conversations – even with people who didn’t sign. I’d say the majority of the people we had conversations with did sign,” Brian Costello, one of the people who helped gather signatures, told the Community Advocate. “Over 2,000 conversations took place about Shrewsbury, zoning, the MBTA Communities Act, and all this other stuff. We got a lot of feedback.”
The referendum mirrors what happened in Milton, perhaps the most widely known example of MBTA zoning non-compliance. In Milton, the town’s representative Town Meeting approved an MBTA zoning plan, though 54% of town residents later voted against it in a February referendum. Residents in Needham recently successfully petitioned for a referendum to decide MBTA zoning.
RELATED CONTENT: After hours of debate, Shrewsbury Town Meeting adopts MBTA zoning
This will be the second-ever referendum in Shrewsbury’s history. After Town Meeting appropriated an additional $3.5 million for Floral Street Elementary School in 1995, residents petitioned for a townwide referendum that fell 101 votes short of overturning Town Meeting’s decision.
Shrewsbury’s bylaws include several specific guidelines regarding referenda. Section 16 specifies that “no action of [Town Meeting] shall be reversed unless at least 20% of registered voters shall vote in favor of reversing action.” In other words, at least 20% of all the town’s voters (around 5,400 people) must vote “no” on the ballot for the referendum to successfully repeal Town Meeting’s approval of MBTA zoning.
Those 20% of registered voters must also outnumber those who vote “yes” to uphold the MBTA zoning.
The 1950s-era bylaws call for the referendum to open at 2 p.m. and close “not earlier than” 8 p.m. Shrewsbury has had low turnout in previous town elections, including 10.35% turnout in May 2024, 14.82% turnout in an especially high-profile 2023 election, and 16% turnout in 2022.
Though the Select Board is expected to officially decide the referendum date on Dec. 17, town officials confirmed that the referendum will not be held prior to Dec. 31, the state’s deadline for MBTA zoning compliance. Thus, Shrewsbury will enter 2025 as a non-compliant community.
