The Framingham Planning Board’s proposal on how the city should comply with the Massachusetts MBTA Communities law is facing widespread opposition for including more than 1,200 new housing units in areas not close to the train station or other robust transportation infrastructure.
The plan specifically calls for zoning that would allow
- 162 units on 5.4 acres in Saxonville in District 2 (the old Saxonville Lumber parcel at Concord, School, and A streets)
- 1,104 units on 37 acres in Nobscot in District 3, bordering District 1 and close to District 2 (multiple contiguous parcels off Edgell and Edmands roads)
- 360 units on 12 acres in a Shoppers World district
- 420 units on 14 acres in a Speen Street district
- 2,100 units downtown
- 450 units on 15 acres in a 9/90 district
All would allow for 30 units per acre, double the density required by the state.
District 1 City Councilor Christine Long has been working to get changes to the city’s plan, saying “no one” is happy with the decisions that were made in the Planning Board proposal. She asked that it be put on the City Council’s Oct. 1 meeting agenda for discussion, where it received a lot of criticism. District 3 Council Adam Steiner was quoted as calling it a “piece of garbage.”
The City Council is discussing the issue tonight and is expected to vote to send amendments to the plan to the Planning Board. More info and Zoom link: https://framinghamma.granicus.com/DocumentViewer.php?file=framinghamma_3eefb3bfbe0443f9c30d073e799bed75.pdf&view=1
The Planning Board is holding a public hearing on the issue this Thursday, Oct. 17, starting at 7 pm (the MBTA Communities plan is second on the agenda, although “Some items may not be discussed in the order listed,” the agenda notes). More info and Zoom link: https://framinghamma.granicus.com/DocumentViewer.php?file=framinghamma_517eedb6a6dce31f4b71cf4beffd08f4.pdf&view=1 . A City Council planned hearing is Oct. 29.
What is the MBTA Communities law?
The law requires all “MBTA communities” to create zoning districts that allow a specific number of multi-family housing units by right at a density of at least 15 units per acre. The law includes a formula stipulating the amount of new housing units required based on current housing units; and whether a community has rapid transit (i.e. subway service), commuter rail, or is adjacent to commuter rail. Under the law’s formula, Framingham needs to zone to allow 4,355 housing units – 15% of its total 2020 housing units. And, those new zoning districts must cover at least 50 acres, and 40% must be located near the train station.
In addition to trying to ease the state’s housing shortage, the law aims to “reduce reliance on single occupancy vehicles” and offer “better access to work, services, and other destinations by increasing mobility and utilization of public transit,” according to a state web page on compliance with the law.
How adding more than 1,200 housing units in Nobscot and Saxonville would help reduce reliance on private automobiles and SUVs is somewhat baffling. It was clear during the recent Nobscot intersection reconstruction project, for example, that the city’s main goal was to design for maximum auto traffic throughput and not create complete streets. At a neighborhood meeting on the project, residents were told when asking about bike lanes and more robust pedestrian streetscape landscaping that there was no room left for those things once all the needs of motor vehicles were accommodated.
Other criticisms of the plan include: not trying to get “credit” for new multi-family housing that has been built in Framingham since the law passed in January 2021, not doing any planning for infrastructure demands that massively increasing density would require in a neighborhood like Nobscot, not being creative in placing overlay districts where they might be a better fit, and proposing even more units and density than required.
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