by Lonnie Brennan
All Georgetown residents and visitors are urged to attend a Special Town Meeting on Monday, December 9, 2024 at 7 PM. You must be a registered voter in Georgetown to vote on the published four warrant items, which include:
- MORE HOUSING UNITS: Allow Accessory Dwelling Units (example, convert a garage into a separate living unit – rent it out)
- MORE LARGE HOUSING UNITS AND STATE/MBTA CONTROL ON ZONING: Embrace elimination/overlay of local zoning control to allow multi-family and large apartment complexes in accordance with the state’s directive to significantly produce more housing units in towns served by or adjacent to MBTA stops.
Several residents, including former state representative candidate Mark Tashjian have questioned allowing state control of zoning, and approval of large building projects.
In an open e-mail, Tashjian noted concerns raised about the town’s water infrastructure and how taxpayers could bear the brunt of required upgrades to meet the needs of multiple high-density developments. The state is pressing towns to adopt the 3A MBTA zoning changes which Tashjian noted: “is an unfunded mandate” and cautioned that “once you hand over control, Beacon Hill can change the rules at any time.”
Concerns over impacts to the schools, police, fire, roadway, electrical infrastructure and other items have also been raised throughout social media. The extremely rapid development of high-density projects seems to be the main concern.
Failing to adopt the state’s MBTA zoning rules would eliminate the town from receiving certain potential future grants, but much controversy around the lack of clarity of grants, as well as the “puppet strings” that accompany certain grants have been noted, including a reminder of all the problems at one of the town’s pond-front recreational facilities: the town received grant funds to upgrade play structures and such, and have since then been forced to open the former “residents only” fields and beach to everyone.
The full 7-page Town Warrant is available at https://tinyurl.com/georgetownhousing. ♦
