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Needham Town Meeting overwhelmingly backed a rezoning plan Monday that could catalyze construction of more than 3,300 housing units.
The Neighborhood Housing Plan was the more aggressive of two options presented by Needham officials to comply with the MBTA Communities law.
Over the past two years, town officials have studied rezoning commercial corridors to comply with the law’s minimum requirement to allow construction of 1,784 housing units by right.
The Neighborhood Housing Plan covers nearly 93 acres where more than 35 units per acre can be built, with maximum building heights ranging from 3 to 4.5 stories. It includes sections of Chestnut Street, Hillside Avenue, Crescent Road and Hillside Avenue.
The proposal received backing from the business community including the Charles River Regional Chamber, which said it “will invigorate Needham’s businesses and help boost the town’s long-term competitiveness.”
The biggest development opportunities lie in the Chestnut Street West district, where 560 housing units could be developed, according to a presentation by Needham officials.
The plan requires that all buildings with at least six units include at least 12.5 percent affordable units reserved by households earning a maximum 80 percent of area median income.
Needham hired consultants RKG Associates and Innes Associates to present the two options for rezoning areas for additional height and density. The districts currently have approximately 775 existing multifamilly units.
The full buildout could take 19 to 34 years, according to consultants’ projections.
The rezoning districts were selected because of their proximity to transit stops and businesses, Select Board member Heidi Frail said this spring.
Officials in some Boston suburbs have sought to subvert the goals of the MBTA Communities law by rezoning areas already largely built out with apartments or condominiums, according to a recent Pioneer Institute report. The law applies to 177 cities and towns.
In an example cited by The Pioneer Institute report, Arlington rezoned parcels that already contain nearly 2,000 existing homes, and are likely to generate only 200 new units over the next decade.
Officials in Burlington and Chelmsford this year backed rezoning plans that largely covered areas with existing multifamily housing. Burlington Planning Board members said they feared a backlash from town meeting voters.
Chelmsford Planning Board members said they ruled out prime redevelopment sites such as the 21-acre former Mercury Systems campus in favor of sites already under construction or occupied by apartments and condos. The plan was overwhelmingly approved by town meeting in May.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is reviewing Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s lawsuit against the town of Milton for overturning the town’s rezoning plan at a referendum last year.
Image courtesy of RKG Associates and Innes Associates
