WOBURN - Mayor Scott Galvin and other city leaders will not comply with new “MBTA Communities” zoning mandates

 

City’s leadership says Woburn won’t comply with new housing regs

WOBURN - Mayor Scott Galvin and other city leaders will not comply with new “MBTA Communities” zoning mandates unless state officials include some mechanism that links recent building activity to lower minimum housing unit thresholds, the Planning Board recently learned.  http://homenewshere.com/daily_times_chronicle/news/woburn/article_69c1403a-b421-11ec-9fe2-87177e11c98d.html

During the city officials’ latest gathering in City Hall, Planning Director Tina Cassidy explained that Galvin and the City Council uniformly agreed to reject new “housing choice” regs being promoted by the state’s Executive Office for Housing and Economic Development (EOHED). As currently written, the rules would require Woburn to okay the by-right construction of roughly 3,500 multi-family housing units within a special 50-acre zoning district by Commerce Way and Anderson Regional Transportation Center.

“The city will be working on a letter of comment to the state and it will say Woburn does not intend to create a [new by-right housing] district,” Cassidy explained during last week’s Planning Board discussion. “I think the letter will also suggest that communities like Woburn that have already reached the state’s 10 percent affordable housing standard [should get some credit for that accomplishment].”