Dear Editor,
The much talked about MBTA Communities Multi-family Overlay District Zoning Article is slated to come before the voters of Wilmington for a vote on Saturday. All of our Selectman are against it. Some would refer to the statute as extortion, while others refer to it as detrimental to the town.
Our Selectmen could have come up with an alternative, yet once again dropped the ball. None of the Selectmen has ever initiated anything to develop or provide for senior housing. Many in town are observing an absence of transparency on the Select Board and an utter failure to address issues of widespread importance. The arrogance and ignorance of the board is obvious to the general public along with a refusal to answer legitimate questions affecting the public at large. The Board’s absence of effort to address affordable senior housing is disgraceful at best. One would just have to look at the agenda for the upcoming December 9, 2024 Select Board meeting to see how much of a joke this Board is.
https://www.wilmingtonma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif5221/f/events/agenda.sb_.12.09.2024.pdf
It is my intention to take an article that is flawed and detrimental to the town and fix it for the betterment of the community. The fix would be to offer an amendment to Article 1 at the Special Town Meeting. The proposal would be for affordable senior housing through an overlay zone or overlay zones on Town property for the purpose of constructing affordable senior housing. This would have to be accomplished through a Home Rule Petition and a Special Legislative Act. I would hope that you and the Wilmington voters would support this and our seniors.
The proposal is as follows:
Amendment to Article 1 on the December 7, 2024 Town of Wilmington Special Town Meeting warrant.
I move for an amendment to Article 1 on the December 7, 2024 Town of Wilmington Special Town Meeting to read as follows:
To vote to petition the Massachusetts State Legislature for a Home Rule Petition to request a special Legislative Act to grant the Town of Wilmington an exemption from section 3A of the zoning act (Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40A) also referred to as the MBTA Communities Multi-family Overlay district. The exemption is to allow the Town of Wilmington to choose its Town owned property or properties for the purpose of providing an overlay zone or overlay zones for affordable senior housing. The exemption requested would be conditional to the Town providing overlay zones for 1248 affordable senior housing units or a combination of affordable senior housing units plus the total amount of bedrooms of existing Wilmington homes owned by seniors that agree to sell the homes and who agree to become an occupant in one of the Town of Wilmington affordable senior housing units. The combination of units and affordable senior housing must total 1248 units. An affordable senior housing unit shall be counted as one unit regardless of the number of bedrooms and an existing residential property to be marketed and sold shall not count for more than 3 bedrooms regardless of the amount of bedrooms when calculating the total amount of units to meet the 1248 units. The affordable senior housing zone or zones shall not include any existing affordable senior housing units at the time of this Legislative Act in determining the required number of units for compliance.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Kevin MacDonald
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