Lynnfield’s plans to comply with the MBTA Zoning Act in advance

LYNNFIELD — The Planning Board voted unanimously to recommend to Town Meeting the MBTA Zoning Committee’s proposal to create three overlapping districts that will comply with the MBTA Communities Act (Cap. 40A, Sec. 3A). The proposal will appear as Article 5 of the mandate.

The law requires the establishment of “at least one district of reasonable size in which multifamily housing is permitted by law” in 177 cities and towns.

Board member Brian Charville said: “Legally speaking, we don’t really have a choice here. If you read the statute, (it says), ‘An MBTA community must have,’ so there’s not an option there, we’ve got to do it.”

Planning Board and MBTA Zoning Committee Chair E. Page Wilkins said, “The law does not require multifamily housing to be built. It’s just a zoning change that could allow multifamily housing to be built in certain city-designated locations.”

Wilkins said the law calls for 607 units and the committee operated under the advice of a state-paid consultant.

The proposal targets the MarketStreet apartments, the Michael’s Landing apartments on Route 1 South and the Lynnfield Commons apartment complex and part of the adjacent car dealership. Because those parcels have existing multifamily units, the number of units is reduced from 607 to 149.

Wilkins said any new housing at MarketStreet, if built, “will only allow what it currently is, which is a four-story, 182-unit building.” The complex currently has 180 units.

“So basically that’s not going to change, so there’s no new buildings at MarketStreet,” she said.

Board vice-chairman Kate Flaws said: “The only change that could happen is if someone knocked down the existing flats and put the exact same thing in. They could only add two units, so there is no change.”

At Michael’s Landing, which currently has 68 units, “we created a zoning overlay over the five acres that would allow exactly what’s there to be built,” Wilkins said. “Nothing more or different could be built in that area.”

Lynnfield Commons has 200 units. Five other parcels along Route 1 at the Kelly and Herb Chambers dealerships, currently without housing units, will be included in the overlay district.

In response to a question from board member Amy MacNulty, Planning and Conservation Director Emilie Cadamartori explained that a developer could opt for original zoning or overlay zoning.

“In that case, general business zoning could continue if they want to,” she said.

Wilkins noted the deadline for compliance with state law is Dec. 31, 2024, and the importance of not jeopardizing the city’s eligibility for state grants.

“If we don’t comply, we won’t be eligible for a lot of grants,” Wilkins said. “A lot of it is street and sidewalk grants, so it would have a significant impact on the city. The other concern is that we are being sued by the attorney general. So the real risk for Lynnfield is that the state could ultimately determine the location of the zoning district if the city doesn’t comply on its own. I don’t know that the state would come up with the same low-impact model. People who don’t live here, who don’t know what’s good for us, could decide.”

Resident Wallace MacKenzie said the law only mentions “three specific grants (and) doesn’t list a lot of them.”

Cademartori said that while the statute only lists three, the compliance guidelines added 12 additional programs and that “those additional programs are where the city received funds.”

She added that each grant requires the municipality to comply with state law. “This is a standard provision that we now realize could jeopardize every state grant,” she said. “So it’s a pretty significant expansion … Section 3A is a state law and if we’re going to contract with a state to get a grant, the city has to comply with all state laws, period. It doesn’t matter what the state funding is, it could jeopardize any grant. To me, that’s pretty scary.”

Resident Alan Dresios praised the council for the “unique” job it had done.

During discussion of the motion, Charvile noted that the law was enacted to address the commonwealth’s housing shortage, “but it seems to me that somebody made a fool of themselves that cities like us are able to get away with using existing multi-family to check off box and meet the requirement. It seems like a big gap, and the fact that we’re able to reduce the number so much and make the area so small is pretty remarkable, so let’s jump into the gap and take advantage of it.”