NAHANT — The Town held a public hearing at Town Hall on Tuesday evening for community members to learn more about the efforts to bring the Town into compliance with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Communities Act.
The Act in question will require the town to create at least one zoning overlay district where multi-family housing is permitted as of right. Nahant qualifies as an “Adjacent Small Town” under the Act. The deadline for compliance with the law is Dec. 31.
In its work to reach compliance, the Planning Board is proposing the creation of a Multi-Family Overlay District within the Town Bylaws. However, the overlay district does not require that housing be built, nor does it restrict the Board’s current site plan review process, according to the Town’s website.
Major elements of the criteria included is as follows:
- Minimum gross density of 15 units per acre
- Not more than 0.5 miles from a commuter rail station, subway station, ferry terminal, or bus station, if applicable.
- No age restrictions
- Suitable for families with children
Planning Board Chair Sheila Hambleton explained that the Town is expected to have at least one zoning district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as a right, and that “failure with this law results in a loss of eligibility for many funding opportunities for the town.” She also said that it can potentially be sued for noncompliance.
If the Town does not comply with the state zoning mandate, it falls into a situation where the State can step in and essentially designate where it thinks the required units should be located.
Hambleton said an overlay district “does not disturb the underlying zoning district.”
“We were told that we had to have close to 130 units to be added in addition to the Accessory Dwelling Units, and the state agreed that 84 units and a 5 acre minimal size area is what would be required for the town,” Hambleton said.
In further research, it decided that a total Town Overlay District –– which could regulate land use across the entire town, rather than in a zone or neighborhood –– was not the best path forward.
Nells Nelson, co-founding principal of CommunityScale — a planning and zoning consulting firm — explained why the total town overlay was not the preferred path.
“One of the issues with potentially rezoning the entire community would be that you create the right to do at least three units on every parcel. That would be a big change from your current single-family zoning,” Nelson said. “You’d also have to make sure that you met the requirement of having at least 15 units per acre as the general density.”
Nelson continued, explaining that further research from the Town into the matter resulted in Nahant looking to make it “an overlay on part of the Town.”
Hambleton elaborated, saying that the Planning Board selected seven sights for further study.
“We looked at an area just by the end of the causeway, by the Tides Restaurant area, up to Little Nahant Road. … We then looked at the dump area by Spring Road that went up to Nahant Road — left and right of the business district — up to a portion of Sunset Road.
“We looked up in the country club lot. … We looked between Summer Street and Winter Street down to Tudor Beach,” Hambleton said. “We looked at East Point, the Willow Road area to Cliff Street.”
She said that other areas of consideration were the Bass Point apartment lot, Range Road, Sherman Avenue, Maple Avenue, and a portion of Pearl Avenue.
The Board then went through each site to evaluate and rate each site. The Bass Point apartment lot and the Range Road and relay yard area were “the top two areas,” according to Hambleton.
This resulted in just the apartment lot, Hambleton explained, due to it only being one parcel of land.
She added that if a developer were to create 84 units, 10% of that would be designated affordable housing. “Or, if they wanted to put in 127 units, they’d have to put in, by right, 25% of that as affordable housing units.”
She noted the sites have been designated single-family since zoning since the 1960s, and that it will stay single family.
“There’ll be an overlay district just so that we can be able to comply with the law,” she said. “It doesn’t mean we have to go and build right now.”
Planning Board Vice Chair Rob Steinburg said the board evaluated the sites based on whether multi-family zoning was a fit with the area, as well as whether it’d be disruptive to open space or recreational communities in the town.
“Bass Point was at the top, and because it’s already multi-family, it was a super fit to have an overlay district of multi-family,” he said. “What an overlay district means is that the owners of Bass Point, or any succeeding owner, could decide to refurbish the apartments as is, consistent with the special permit. … If they tear down the units, and want to build multi-family units, they’re limited either to 84 or 127 units.”
Steinburg added that what’s likely to happen is: “Instead of having 128 units, which is what the site currently has, there would likely be 84 units with 10% or eight or nine affordable units.”
He added, “It’s not low-cost housing. It’s people at the average economic level of a current residence of Nahant. What’d we have is higher-end units, a better unit consistent with Nahant’s zoning laws.”
One resident asked if the state or the town will own the zoning if the zoning law passes.
Hambleton responded, saying, “No. It will remain single-family zoned. It’s just an overlay district, saying that if they want to tear it down, they have a choice for 84 units with 10% affordability or 127 units at 25% affordability.
Another resident asked if a traffic study was done on the matter. The Board responded by saying there was no traffic study conducted.
Steinburg explained that since the future could entail be less units or the same, traffic would roughly be the same.
“We didn’t have the budget for it, and I didn’t think we needed one, given we’re not increasing density at all,” he said.
Select Board Chair Rob Tibbo said he didn’t think the Town should be doing a traffic study for something that might not be built, citing that it should be up to the developer to conduct the study, rather than the town.
The Board is looking to hold a Special Town Meeting in the fall on the issue, though a time and date has yet to be determined.
