After 4-month hiatus, Reading’s Community Development Director, Andrew MacNichol, will be back tonight to go over the town’s “new” (sort of) concepts to propose for the next round of rezoning proposals so that the town can have a proposal in time for the state’s 12/31/2024 deadline for Reading (and for town meeting to vote it up or down in November). Tonight’s focus is “Concept Introductions and Feedback”.
The topic tonight is “Concept Introductions and Feedback,” and the meeting is at the Reading Memorial High School Library (which is on the 2nd floor of the building) at 7pm.
You can also log in via Zoom Meeting Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83970068739 Zoom Meeting ID: 839 7006 8739 ).
I am not sure yet if it will be broadcast on RCTV – no link is posted yet – when it is available, I will add it to this post.
*4:11PM Edit * added RCTV Link:
Tonight is one of just 3 planned meetings this summer on this topic (with July 10th slated for “Refined and Narrowing Concepts” and July 31st slated for “Finalizing our Preferences”. Because many residents are taking summer vacations in July when these added meetings happen, tonight may be one of the best opportunities where residents can provide thoughts and feedback live.
So, what will be presented tonight? During this past Monday’s CPDC meeting (6/10/2024) as well as the prior meeting of 5/6/2024), Mr. MacNichol hinted at what would be presented. He stated that the town heard feedback that the mixed-residential (MR) zoning for MBTA communities could be both within the 0.5 mile of the Depot (the state requires 40% of the 1493 minimum units to be within this radius) as well as beyond this radius. MacNichol stated that he ran about 10 possible models to find compliance zoning. Areas that Mr. MacNichol indicated are now under consideration, include approximately 4 to 5 options that could include any of the concepts outlined in this 6 page memo of 2/20/2024 here (see https://www.readingma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/13130/MBTAC-CPDC-Public-Hearing-Memo-Wrapup-2-20-24 ) as well as any of the concepts they tested, which included (based on memo and meeting):
- The same MR proposals provided in January (which he stated Monday are “still on the table” (see https://www.readingma.gov/826/MBTA-Communities-3A-Process and scroll down to the section “materials from our public hearings” to click on various zoning maps shown on 1-22—24 and before, including “largest to date” and “minimal compliance”, etc. ).
- Corridors of mixed residential that are not in commercial areas
- “Commercial Zone Design” – areas studied included a fully compliant Downtown 40R district redesign and a combo proposal using Business-A on south main and pieces of our Industrial zone.
- Fully in commercial zones where to achieve density, they might have to allow up to 5 stories
- “Mixed residential all-around town” – including testing out Salem St as a corridor and adjacent neighborhoods out towards REI; north Main St near Wood End School and HomeGoods; near Calareso’s Market; and other school locations for suitability.
- “Mixed Residential plus Big Buildings” -a piece of Business-A, and the residential district around downtown. Any split zoned parcels between Business-A and S-15 would be expected to be ‘unsplit’. Additionally, if we can translate this idea outside of the town center area into some of the locations included in alternative option “A” (such as the HomeGoods area or REI area) we will test those secondary combinations as well.
The one area I am not seeing in ANY proposal thus far is an attempt to rezone over large multi-unit housing developments like Reading Woods, which is something our peers (Burlington, Winchester, Woburn) are doing (or have proposed, in the case of Woburn) for compliance. The town has a rationale for not doing this that I both disagree with and believe is not accurate. I have sent the town an email with my concerns, which I will raise tonight, and I also plan on sending that letter as an LTE to the Recap and the Post so that the public can see my concerns.
Mr. MacNichol and the CPDC this past Monday also discussed how possible affordability components could fit into these zoning proposals, and a concern I have that if you overlay an existing 40R with 25% affordable, with MBTA communities that has only 10-15% affordable, would that cause the existing 40R to change to have fewer affordable units, such that it lowers the town total? That will be good question for someone to ask this evening.
A sense I got from watching this meeting is that several CPDC members have concerned with rezoning over any commercial to satisfy MBTA communities, so expect that concern to be raised tonight. One CPDC member opined that if we rezone our downtown to allow residential under MBTA communities that we will “lose our downtown” and/or lose what little commercial development Reading has. A CPDC member also questioned whether residents would be concerned if Stop and Shop was turned into a huge residential complex (FYI – Winchester, as part of their MBTA communities plan approved by their town meeting, zoned over their Stop and Shop, as well as over some existing condo complexes – and Winchester has even lower percent commercial than Reading).
The only hints at possible other zones that might be considered that have tangible maps, were shown during the 5/6/2024 CPDC meeting, but were never posted as slides. I tried to capture screen shots from the YouTube, which are included as images with this post. In the regions, the labeling of things like “R-1” indicate a possible residential rezoning that appeared to be under consideration; similarly, Ind-1 would be industrial, and Bus-A would be Business-A, etc. I cannot promise that these are the exact zones under consideration, but they were shown in the May CPDC meeting and seem to match the regions being considered in the 2/20/2024 meeting and mentioned this past Monday.
I have also included with this post the other maps and videos from Nov 2023 – January 2024.
