NAHANT — The Town is gearing up to hold a Special Town Meeting on Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. regarding its efforts to reach compliance with the state’s zoning mandate for the 3A Zoning Act before the deadline hits on Dec. 31. The meeting will be held at Town Hall.
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, with the Planning Board proposing the creation of a Multi-Family Overlay District within the Town bylaws, though the overlay district does not require that housing be built, nor restrict the Board’s current site plan review process, according to the Town’s website.
Here are some of the major points of criteria that the Planning Board had to abide by during its efforts to do research on the matter:
- 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
For the Planning Board, months of research went into analyzing the layout of the town in order to best determine a possible location for the overlay district. Initially, the Board analyzed and rated several areas — such as Bass Point Apartments lot, Nahant Road, and Range Road, among others — though ultimately, it landed on Bass Point Apartments lot as the ideal location, due to it being one parcel of land.
Planning Board Chair Sheila Hambleton spoke with The Item on Tuesday morning, where she gave a recap of the Board’s efforts so far to reach compliance with the state.
“This is state required, and we’re doing our due diligence to try and establish an area that would comply with the state’s law for a modified overlay district over a residential district,” she said.
She added, “We chose the Bass Point Apartment parcel because that has 10.61 acres, and by eliminating the wetland area and the pavement area, we’d come up with a little over five acres. Currently, there’s 128 units with a management office building there.”
Hambleton continued, saying that the Board added a requirement that the units have to have 10% affordability, which she noted was not a requirement by the state. She said, if the 128 units are replaced with the maximum limit of 85 units, there will have to be 25% affordable housing units included in the development.
She also explained that one of the other areas of consideration was the area of the Nahant Country Club Estate, though it was determined the area was not feasible for the endeavor after further investigation.
Hambleton added that communal feedback from residents has been a continuous element of the Board’s process, and the Board is eyeing potentially hosting more public forums to hear thoughts or concerns from the public before the Special Town Meeting on Nov. 19.
