Hello Wilmington,
Next weekend, we will once again be asked to vote on the MBTA Communities (3A) zoning overlay at Special Town Meeting on November 21st. This will be the fourth time residents have been asked to approve this zoning.
This is also my second editorial on the matter. I took a few lumps for the length of my first one, so I’ll try to keep this one a bit shorter. However, I strongly encourage everyone to take a few minutes to read and absorb the information I previously shared. It remains just as relevant today and the information contained is the reason a NO vote is the sensible option.
This editorial will take a slightly different approach because, as we get closer to November 21st, we’re seeing the fear tactics being employed to convince residents that surrendering to the state’s demands is our” only” reasonable option.
As I said, It isn’t.
Everything I stated in my previous editorial still stands. The court made clear that noncompliance does carry consequences, those are the loss of certain state grants and a formal determination of noncompliance. The Attorney General might try and seek judicial enforcement, but to date there is no legal mechanism for a court to ignore MGL 40A sec 5 and just impose a zoning change. If you believe this is a reasonable outcome, simply stated, do you believe the court will violate one law to force compliance of another?
Yet, listening to some of the rhetoric, you would think the Commonwealth was preparing to march into Wilmington and take control of Town Hall.
As we prepare to enter that room and cast our votes, I think it’s important to recognize that, like any good theatrical performance, everyone has a role to play.
I’ve said from the very beginning that our Planning Director has done a good job with an impossible assignment. She was handed rotten lemons and managed to make lemonade. I applaud her efforts, even though I fundamentally disagree with the legislation she’s been tasked with implementing.
Then we have the administration.
Their role is to follow the advice of town counsel. But residents need to understand something important: town counsel does not represent you or I individually. That attorney will sit on stage and defend the corporate interest of the town, not the peoples interest.
Town counsel represents the municipality. Technically, the Select Board is responsible for overseeing the town manager, although, in my opinion, this board has largely abdicated that responsibility.
When residents ask questions at Town Meeting, I suspect we will hear plenty of carefully crafted responses, qualifiers, and hedge words rather than straightforward yes-or-no answers.
Remember, town counsel is there to protect the town’s legal interests, not to serve as personal legal counsel to the residents sitting in that auditorium.
And that brings me to the larger issue.
When did governing through fear become an acceptable substitute for governing through leadership?
We are being told what we might lose, what the Attorney General might demand, and what terrible consequences might follow if we dare to say no.
But what about the consequences of saying yes?
Wilmington has governed itself for generations, long before many of us arrived here. With God’s blessing, it will continue to do so for generations to come.
This legislation represents an extraordinary overreach into local government. It attempts to substitute a one-size-fits-all state mandate for the judgment of the people who actually live here.
And let’s stop pretending Wilmington hasn’t done its share.
Take a drive around town. Look at the hundreds upon hundreds of housing units that have already been constructed. Then ask yourself a simple question:
When is enough, enough?
Despite all this development, housing prices continue to climb. We keep building, yet the promise of affordability seems no closer than it was before.
Wilmington is a town, not an urban center. Much of our community lacks the infrastructure that high-density development depends upon, including municipal sewer service and widespread natural gas availability.
Those limitations don’t magically disappear because Beacon Hill passes legislation.
Infrastructure costs money. Roads, schools, public safety, water systems, and other municipal services all carry expenses. And when those expenses exceed the additional revenue generated by development, who makes up the difference?
We do. The taxpayers of Wilmington.
In my judgment, the long-term financial burden of this type of development will outweigh the revenue it generates. That’s a bill I have no interest in handing to our children.
I grew up in the 1980s, when we were taught a simple saying:
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.
So call Wilmington “out of compliance” if you wish.
It doesn’t frighten me, nor should it frighten you.
You know who else was considered out of compliance with the demands of a distant government? Ill give you one guess.
Those men and women understood something that seems increasingly forgotten today: the right of a community to govern itself is worth defending, even when those in power insist that resistance is futile.
I’m not suggesting our circumstances are identical. But the principle of standing up for local self-government remains as important today as it was generations ago.
On November 21st, the people of Wilmington have an opportunity to make their voices heard.
Don’t let fear make your decision for you. Don’t let predictions of what might happen outweigh your own judgment about what is right for our town.
Show up and vote NO
Because the future of Wilmington should be decided by the people who call it home, not by those who believe they know better.
Sincerely,
Rob Fasulo
