“Time,” Albert Einstein is alleged to have said, “is what keeps everything from happening at once.”
In her role as the Needham’s chief executive officer, Town Manager Kate Fitzpatrick does her level best to manage time, along with human resources, to develop policy on issues large and small.
But sometimes the issues come fast and with some urgency, or via state mandates that the town is obligated to meet, such as the MBTA Communities Act. This can stretch the capacity of a town that relies heavily on resident volunteers to craft policy.
The next year appears to be one of those times, with the need to tackle issues related to the protection of trees, regulating house sizes, the redesign and revitalization of the downtown area and crafting a stormwater bylaw — all with a potential $300 million-plus school renovation project looming.
Policy on all of these issues will be crafted by ad hoc committees, some of which will have upward of a dozen members. The committees will be made up of elected officials, appointed officials and town residents. These will all be unpaid volunteers who will be supported by town staff and paid consultants.
“There’s a lot of critical priorities right now, but it’s very common in Needham to have an ad hoc committee about subject matter that there’s wide interest in,” said Fitzpatrick.
“I think we’re at our maximum,” said Select Board Chair Kevin Keane of the town’s roster of active committees. “You don’t want to overload it to where we can’t do anything well.”
It remains to be seen whether the town can indeed do these jobs well, but there is no expectation the work will be done quickly. The town’s mantra under Fitzpatrick has long been “everything takes 18 months,” and in many cases even longer. The downtown revitalization committee, for example, is expected to serve at least three years.
Because committee members have day jobs, most of the meetings will occur in the evening. And because they have lives and other responsibilities, they will meet, at most, twice each month.
Their final decisions will almost always require approval at Town Meeting, which meets only twice a year, in the spring and fall.
Separate committees working on issues that sometimes overlap further complicates the work. A stormwater bylaw, for example, will need to address how trees are managed. And the need to protect trees will influence any policy that attempts to regulate the construction of new homes that replace teardowns.
“That’s why these committees just have to have different time horizons, because you can’t get everything done for one topic,” said Fitzpatrick.
“The relevant staff on those overlapping committees have a really heavy lift,” she said of the town employees from different departments supporting the committees. “They involve planning, they involve public works, they involve the Building Department — all of them.”
One concern Fitzpatrick does not have is finding residents to step up and volunteer. “We are getting amazing response to some of our committees,” she said.
Only one of the ad hoc working groups has been fully formed and has begun its work. The Stormwater By-Law Working Group’s nine members had their initial meeting in July.
Large House Review
The Planning Board has almost finalized the charge and members of the Large House Study Review Committee, which was formed at the direction of Town Meeting.
This past May, Town Meeting discussed a citizens petition that claimed a prior large house review committee had produced zoning changes that were plagued by “loopholes,” failed to slow the rate of teardowns and contributed to making Needham increasingly unaffordable.
Town Meeting deferred acting on the petition, but approved an article that asked the Planning Board to report back in May 2025 on how it plans to address the issue of teardowns and their impact on the town.
At its Aug. 14 meeting, the board was still sorting out different interpretations of what Town Meeting asked them to produce and how the committee should be staffed.
“I worry that having 13 members is going to protract this thing and we’re not going to have anything of significance for Town Meeting, either next May or October,” member Adam Block said, arguing that the committee’s scope should be limited.
“I want to be really clear with the Planning Board and with the public: this is very simply and only about reducing the size of the box on the lot. Period. To connect elements of affordability or sustainability … is bogus at best,” he said.
Other board members pushed back, saying the citizens petition discussed in May recommended a broader look at Needham’s housing needs. The members also suggested the town’s 2022 housing plan recommendations should be addressed.
Member Paul Alpert said the broader scope “goes to the whole reason why we’re doing this. If we don’t believe that’s true, there’s no reason even to have this committee. We have a housing plan.”
“But that housing plan does not identify any objective for affordability or sustainability or other impacts,” said Block.
“Actually it does,” said Planning Board Chair Natasha Espada, citing language in the 2022 plan recommending the town “promote greater energy efficiency” and “discourage the demolition of more modest homes and replacement by much larger and newer homes.”
“We’re trying to incentivize people to not be tearing down houses,” she said.
Block said he was concerned the Planning Board risked giving the committee ambiguous direction.
“I don’t think it’s ambiguous,” Espada said. “You just don’t agree with it.”
Eventually the board voted unanimously that the committee should address issues beyond dimensional regulations for houses.
Downtown revitalization
In April, the Select Board chose a design firm, Environmental Partners, to lead the revitalization project and work closely with Department of Public Works staff. The working group for this project is expected to have 15 members of various stakeholders, including downtown business owners.
Trees
The tree bylaw working group is still being formulated, with the Select Board expecting to receive a recommendation from Fitzpatrick in October.
“The tree committee is not really existing yet,” Fitzpatrick said. “The Select Board asked me to give them some recommendations on next steps for trees. So I just have a group of people helping me make a recommendation.
“There very well may be a committee, but this is just a working group in terms of tossing out strategies, challenges and opportunities and trying to figure out what we could put on the table for the Select Board to consider.”
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