NAHANT ― Town officials are urging the state to exercise “flexibility” in applying a proposed new zoning requirement prescribing a minimum gross density of 15 housing units per acre to the tiny community.
“Nahant has around 1,680 housing units. The guidelines would increase the number of units by 45 percent,” Town Administrator Antonio Barletta and selectmen Joshua Antrim, Eugene Canty and Mark Cullinan warned in a March 31 letter to state Housing Secretary Michael Kennealy.
The letter and a state description of the “multi-family zoning requirement for Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) communities” can be read on the town website.
A letter sent by Kennealy’s office last December to Eastern Massachusetts communities served by the MBTA explained that the zoning changes are included in a economic development bill signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker last year.
The changes are currently in the draft guideline stage, according to the state letter, with Kennealy’s office issuing final guidelines after communities served by the MBTA offer comments and suggestions on them.
Barletta and the selectmen want state officials to consider Nahant’s square-mile size and the fact that 40 percent of the town’s acreage is in a floodplain or classified as wetlands.
The zoning requirement states that MBTA communities will have at least one multi-family housing district “of reasonable size.” Town officials in their letter said “reasonable size” translates into 50 acres. Multiplying that acreage by the gross density of 15 housing units per acre outlined in the requirement translates into 750 units for Nahant.
Barletta and the selectmen asked state officials to eliminate the 750-unit requirement, noting that it would severely stress town traffic and water and sewer demand and spark an “explosion of school-age children potentially requiring the construction of new schools . . .”
The letter sent by Kennealy’s office appears to offer some latitude from the requirement guidelines. It notes that “reasonable size” for zoning districts will be determined by the type of public-transit service in each community.
The MBTA’s 439 bus runs from Nahant to the Wonderland Blue Line subway stop.
Town officials also asked the state to consider a percentage-based approach to calculating housing units created under the zoning requirement.
“Nahant’s true belief is that we are not the type of community that is intended to be impacted by the statute,” stated the town letter.
