The only item on the Planning Board’s Feb. 13 agenda was the one that has roiled the town for months: the zoning plan to comply with the state’s MBTA Communities Act. But this meeting was not controversial. The Planning Board had previously announced its intention to recommend the “base” zoning map, which would allow for 1,870 total units of multifamily housing near the Needham Junction, Needham Center and Needham Heights train stations.
Chair Natasha Espada presented the base scenario as it had been brought to Town Meeting last October and opened the floor to comments before the vote on whether to recommend the plan be adopted at Annual Town Meeting in May.
There were 11 people in the audience for the public hearing at its outset, and another half-dozen trickled in while Espada presented. Two commenters asked for clarity on the history of the process. One, Bill Lenahan, expressed doubt about the minimum parking requirement of one parking place per unit.
Resident Ken Buckley, a prominent participant in the effort to repeal the expanded plan after October’s Town Meeting approval, zeroed in on one issue: whether the state law left ambiguity about whether towns or developers would have to pay for water and sewer improvements if the size and use of the new construction required them. Calling it an “unfunded mandate,” Buckley predicted lawsuits.
Espada steered the question to Assistant Town Manager Katie King, who said, “The applicant would have to pay to tie in to water and sewer.” Without proper infrastructure, she said, the developer would not get final approvals.
Despite that answer, Planning Board member Paul Alpert agreed with Buckley’s concern. “As a lawyer I say you’re 100% right,” he told Buckley. “It’s an unfunded mandate.”
As Alpert spoke on the issue, Espada waited until she could step back in and return to the mission — and the vote. By unanimous consent, the Planning Board recommended adopting the base plan (suggesting that it now simply be called “Needham MBTA compliance plan”) as presented last October.
There are currently 775 residential units within the new zone, leaving the potential for 1,095 new units if Town Meeting votes for the plan. The projection from the town’s consultants is that slightly more than 400 new units may actually be built over the next decade or more.
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