Ipswich MBTA Community
Resources & views from community members
Ipswich MBTA Community
Resources & views from community members
The Town has formed a task force to coordinate planning. It expects to engage consultants to assist in the work.
No information about the discussions of the task force is available. These are not being considered as subject to Open Meeting Law requirements.
Link to Town page.
Two of the three candidates who would later be elected to the Select Board cited the MBTA Community rules among their top concerns.
An interview with Linda Alexson reported –
She also pointed to Section 3A, the MBTA zoning law, which will require the town to zone 50 acres or more where multifamily housing would be allowed by right. Forty percent of that land has to be within half a mile of the train station.
The will be “a huge issue” coming up, she said. “However we deal with it, we will have to look at the other issues that go along with it,” she said.
Those include water, the impact on school enrollment, parking, roads and other infrastructure, she said.
“It’s not enough for the state to say you have to zone for 900-plus units without telling us how we’re going to deal with all of these other issues,” Alexson said.
And on affordable housing, she said Section 3A doesn’t solve that problem either.
Link to article by John Muldoon, April 28, 2034
Another article, on Michael Doughterty, noted –
One issue the town will have to deal with is Section 3A, or the MBTA zoning law, Dougherty noted.
He said all aspects of compliance or non-compliance should be explored. Those include trade-offs between losing grants for non-compliance and costs to the town of extra development.
“There’s no affordable housing in there, and there’s none required,” he said of one of the law’s shortfalls.
Link to article by John Muldoon, April 18, 2023
Sarah Player, another member of the Select Board, who was not up for re-election, is also a member of the 3A Task Force.
Link to master list.
There are suggestions from time to time, including from the previous Finance Committee Chair and from a Planning Board member, that Ipswich should consider not complying with the 3A mandate and accepting the loss of eligibility for certain State funds.
The advisory from the Attorney General's office makes it clear, however, that the State does not view compliance with 3A as optional, even if a coummunity chose to forgo some State funds.
Link to advisory.
© 2023