SAUGUS — A proposed Cliftondale Square Zoning Overlay District that would have permitted the development of new housing in the square for the first time in decades was narrowly defeated at Town Meeting Monday evening, falling short of the two-thirds supermajority needed to pass a zoning change.
After more than two-and-a-half hours of discussion and debate, Town Meeting members voted 23-18 to support the proposal, which the Planning Board had recommended not to approve.
The overlay proposal was put forward by Precinct 2 Town Meeting member Joe Vecchione, a resident of the square and the former chairman of the Cliftondale Revitalization Committee, and was long-expected to be the most contentious article on the Annual Town Meeting warrant. And that it was, pushing the third session of the Annual Town Meeting past four hours and taking up as much time and debate as each of the previous two sessions.
In the immediate aftermath of the vote, a visibly defeated Vecchione said he was “disappointed that we’re going to continue the status quo.”
“I think that’s it for me for Town Meeting,” he added.
Town Meeting took up the overlay around 9 p.m., starting with a roughly 40-minute presentation from Vecchione. In it, he explained his intent in putting forward the overlay.
He described the exact scale of the proposal, with three-story, 40-foot buildings allowed by right, and four-story, 50-foot developments permitted only after the issuance of a special permit by the Board of Selectmen. Much of Vecchione’s argument hinged on the idea that the overlay represents a tangible step forward for Cliftondale after decades of discussion about revitalization with little action.
Putting forward alternate zoning for the area, he said, was not his idea alone. Across 41 years of studies, zoning was consistently cited as a possible solution to some of the issues plaguing the square, with restrictive policies in place holding back new growth and development.
Vecchione also cited a positive recommendation from the town’s planning and economic development director, Chris Reilly, who said “zoning strategies … will be needed” in the square “as a long-term strategy.”
He also noted the overlay keeps the existing zoning intact and would not force redevelopment of the entire square.
“Commercial spaces are too small to accommodate a sit-down restaurant,” Vecchione said. “No one is going to demolish a commercial space to build a new commercial space.”
“Adopting this overlay tonight would put Cliftondale in a better place to be revitalized tomorrow,” he added. “The do-nothing approach has not worked and will never work. Nothing revitalizes itself.”
Town Meeting then heard from Michael Serino, a member of the Board of Selectmen, who has been a vocal opponent of the overlay throughout the process and spoke in opposition before the Planning Board earlier this month.
Serino said amending the zoning to allow apartment buildings would have a negative impact on the area, citing a glut of residents in the area and two developments set to go up near the square in Revere.
“We should move forward with smaller steps,” Serino said. “As we grow, we need to preserve the character of our community and quality of life.”
One of Vecchione’s colleagues from Precinct 2, Peter Rossetti, a longtime Cliftondale resident who owns an insurance company in the square, said he supported the proposal because he saw apartments as an economic incentive that could lure a so-called “anchor restaurant” to the area.
Rossetti said the only building in the square large enough to support a sit-down resident would be the site of Eastern Bank, which is unlikely to be redeveloped.
The current conditions in Cliftondale are such, he said, that residents have no real incentive to visit the square or to stay there “other than to get a quart of milk after hours.”
Precinct 10 Town Meeting member Martin Costello later offered a motion to indefinitely postpone the article, pending the development of a “viable” parking and safety plan, and described Vecchione’s presentation as “inconclusive.”
But that motion ultimately failed by a 9-32 margin, after impassioned remarks from Vecchione and Board of Selectmen Chairman Anthony Cogliano, who called the square a “dump.”
“These little things, little quick fixes, they’re not the answer for Cliftondale,” Cogliano said, adding the only business still in Cliftondale since his childhood is Rossetti Insurance. “To do nothing tonight is the wrong message.”
Precinct 9 Town Meeting member Bob Long dubbed Vecchione’s proposal an “urban-renewal project,” and suggested he was uncomfortable with the room for variances allowed in the article.
Precinct 3 Town Meeting member AnneMarie Tesora said she supported the proposal, in part, because all it was doing was “taking the handcuffs off” and allowing developers to put forward plans for the square that could then undergo a thorough review process.
Precinct 6 Town Meeting member Jeannie Bartolo suggested COVID-19 was to blame for the loss of businesses in the square and noted she received 101 calls regarding the proposal, with just one in favor.
Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Debra Panetta and fellow Selectman Corinne Riley offered dueling opinions, with Corinne Riley, a lifelong resident of the square, speaking in favor of the proposal and Panetta taking a more hesitant stance.
“We need to start somewhere,” Corinne Riley said.
Panetta said she believes Cliftondale is beginning to revitalize itself, and urged Town Meeting not to take a “premature vote.”
Vecchione emphasized that his proposal would allow new residents, primarily young professionals and seniors, to come into Saugus without having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase a home.
The final speaker before the vote was Chris Riley, a fellow Precinct 2 member and another lifelong resident of the area.
Chris Riley said anyone who believes the square is revitalizing itself “must be new to town,” and added that Town Meeting should lean on the advice of experts like Reilly, who the town pays to offer advice on issues like the overlay.
He also addressed a repeated concern that new housing would further burden a congested community with additional traffic, noting that the Board of Selectmen serve as the town’s traffic commissioners and could address potential issues in the square.
“The 40-year history of Cliftondale shows no one is coming in here to revitalize Cliftondale … because of the zoning,” Riley said.
In a statement Tuesday morning, Vecchione said it stung to see his proposal come just three votes shy of passage.
“I wanted the merits to prevail here rather than conduct a letter-writing campaign, counter-petition, or resort to politicizing the article like a few did. While that may be the way you need to do things in this town to get things done, I’ve certainly seen the toxicity in our political spectrum as a result of that and I’m proud I didn’t sink to that level, even at the expense of the article,” he said. “Unfortunately, today, I don’t have much faith that we will see a revitalized Cliftondale in the near and distant future.”
“I hope we see a bigger transition in our governmental bodies in the near future, where the younger generations are better represented throughout it,” he added. “It’s necessary to truly change the status quo and move the needle to where it needs to be.”
