Malden Planning Board sends recommended MBTA zoning plan to City Council for Vote

Mayor endorses dual District residential zoning that complies with new state law

 

By Steve Freker

 

One of the most significant residential zoning directives in the city’s history – and perhaps one of the most unpopular as well – moved a giant step closer to adoption by the Malden City Council on Tuesday night. The Malden Planning Board, with a 9-0 unanimous vote, on Tuesday passed a motion to relay to the Malden City Council a formal recommendation in favor of a new, detailed zoning overlay ordinance that would put the city in compliance with the MBTA Communities Law.

The vote did not come with some consternation, as longtime Planning Board Chairperson Charles Ioven took the state legislature and MBTA to task for the way the new law was being implemented. “The state is strong arming our city and holding us hostage with the threat of withholding grants and awards,” Ioven said. “We have to figure it’s better for the city and its portfolio of grants that have really helped Malden.”

The timing of the joint meeting was critical as there is a strict, state-imposed deadline of December 31 for submission of the final, compliant version of Malden’s new zoning overlay ordinance. The time element is expected to steer the City Council to move quickly on the new zoning overlay ordinance’s passage. The City Council was due to officially receive the Planning Board’s recommendation this week and is expected to pass the new ordinance at its next meeting on Tuesday, December 12, well ahead of the New Year’s Eve deadline.

The City Council discussed the new MBTA Communities Law at length at its November 14 meeting. That evening, the members voted unanimously to send the paper calling for the ordinance change to this week’s joint meeting with the Planning Board. Supporters of the spirit of the new ordinance were scarce that evening. Nearly every Councillor who spoke on the issue said they fully supported affordable housing and transit-related “smart development,” but not the way it was being “forced on communities” by the MBTA, backed by the state legislature.

At that mid-November meeting and again at this week’s joint Planning Board/Ordinance Committee joint meeting, city Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (OSPCD) Executive Director Deborah Burke, speaking on behalf of Mayor Gary Christenson, presented a letter from the Mayor in support of the new overlay ordinance plan and stressed that the state had attached serious penalties if communities did not make the deadline with their new plan.

As many as 13 state grant programs would ban communities from awards, Burke explained, citing at least four of them which had provided over $4 million for some major projects in Malden in the past 18 months, including the Malden River Works project, which is transforming the area on and around the DPW headquarters into a long-awaited, eco-friendly work and recreation site.

The MBTA Communities law was adopted in 2021 and requires some 177 cities and towns served by the transit agency – including Malden – to have at least one zoning district “of reasonable size” where multifamily housing is allowed within a half mile of a commuter rail, subway or bus station or ferry terminal, if applicable.

Malden has two dual rapid transit stations, with Orange Line and Commuter Rail service: Malden Center, located on Commercial Street in the heart of the downtown, and Oak Grove Station, located at Washington and Winter Streets near the Malden-Melrose city line.

On Tuesday night, at a joint meeting of the Planning Board and the City Council’s Ordinance Committee, Malden City Planner Michelle Romero gave a detailed presentation as part of a public hearing. She laid out an ordinance plan and summary report that would put Malden in compliance with the new law. The report was the culmination of close to two years of planning, meetings and discussions between Planning Board members, Romero, the city’s Office of Strategic Development director Deborah Burke and her staff, as well as City Councillors Craig Spadafora (at-large) and Stephen Winslow (Ward 6).

Details were explained by Romero, outlining how two specific districts were to be created, with five subdistricts as well, in the entire zoning overlay. Some 96 properties were identified and included in subdistricts – some city-owned, some privately-owned and some commercial real estate. (See List, Separate Story.) Romero also reiterated the short time window cited by Burke and indicated the Planning Board and City Council must act quickly to ensure Malden’s continued and future access to state grant money.

Burke and Romero both confirmed that most of the properties included in the proposed, new residential multifamily and multi-use overlays would be situated around the downtown Malden/Malden Center area. There were fewer identified and listed around the Oak Grove Orange Line subway/commuter rail station. A few more were identified and listed along the Eastern Avenue/Rt. 60 corridor as well as at the Overlook Ridge apartments complex.

“This proposal is intended to meet state law as it best represents the wishes and needs of the residents of the Malden community,” Mayor Christenson stated in his letter. OSPCD Executive Director Burke read the Mayor’s letter to the Councillors in its entirety on November 14 and referred to it directly again, with excerpts, Tuesday night.

The new zoning overlay plan, which the Mayor said he supported in the letter read by Burke:

—Keeps the most potential residential growth in the downtown Malden area

—It steers direct impact out of the nearby neighborhoods to prevent overcrowding, limiting the size of overall districts to alleviate potential traffic problems

— Provides a mandatory mixed-use district in downtown to preserve and eventually grow the commercial tax base in Malden and also preserve existing high-rise residential buildings, such as the Heritage senior living apartments in Malden Square and 510 Main St., also in Malden Square

Romero explained the two main districts created in the zoning overlay plan: MBTA Community overlay District (MCMOD) and the Multi-Use District (MMUD). She added that the zoning overlay was carefully crafted to ensure that original, underlying zoning would be retained in all districts. The longtime City Planner said there are 6,930 more units allowed in Malden under the state guidelines, though that comes above the number of existing units (5,202). That would reduce the number of allowable “max build-out” units to around 2,265, Romero said. Of that number, the most realistic new build-out unit additions citywide (and primarily in the Malden Center area) (“the likelihood number” – Romero) would be 1,123 units.

“We want to make it very clear we do not intend on removing any existing zoning,” Romero said.

Chairperson Ioven praised the team of city elected officials, outside consultants and board members who all joined to come up with a viable and comprehensive zoning overlay proposal. “I applaud the team’s efforts to generate the best option for the benefit of the city,” Ioven said. “We have a short runway to this deadline, and there’s a lot of state contributions to the city from which we want to benefit.”

Voting unanimously in sending a recommendation endorsing a Planning Board report to the City Council were Charles Ioven, Chair, Kenneth Antonucci, Vice Chair, Diane Chuha, Clerk,

and members Resa Gray, Patrick Hayes, Eric MacCuish, Eric Henry, Tewedaj Gebreselassie and Henri Soucy.

 

 

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MBTA COMMUNITIES MULTI-FAMILY

OVERLAY DISTRICT

 

Malden Center Subdistrict

11 CANAL ST

35 CANAL ST

CENTRE ST

#053255508

63-85 CENTRE ST

124 CENTRE ST

11 CHARLES ST

17 CHARLES ST

COMMERCIAL ST

#053235501B

102 COMMERCIAL ST

40-66 EXCHANGE ST

70-76 EXCHANGE ST

100-150 EXCHANGE ST

10 FLORENCE ST

39 FLORENCE ST

99 FLORENCE ST

7 JACKSON ST

MAIN ST

#050256905

32 PEARL ST

89 PEARL ST

100 PEARL ST

83 PLEASANT ST

95-105 PLEASANT ST

RAMSDELL ROAD

#049279931

10-20 SUMMER ST

7 WASHINGTON ST

17-19 WASHINGTON ST

*****

Malden Center

High-Rise Subdistrict

36 DARTMOUTH ST

504-514 MAIN ST

180 PLEASANT ST

195 PLEASANT

****

Oak Grove Subdistrict

5 ISLAND HILL AVE

MAIN ST

#062308810

MAIN ST

#062308811

244-248 MAIN ST

260 MAIN ST

550 MAIN ST

556 MAIN ST

1038 MAIN ST

1100 MAIN ST

1128 MAIN ST

30-32 MAPLE ST

33 MAPLE ST

36 MAPLE ST

RAMSDELL RD

#049279932

SUMMER ST

#020120012

74-80B SUMMER ST

82 SUMMER ST

89 SUMMER ST

101-109 SUMMER ST

117 SUMMER ST

120 SUMMER ST

134 SUMMER ST

****

Medium Subdistrict

474-488 BROADWAY

10 OVERLOOK RIDGE DR

51 OVERLOOK RIDGE DR

181 KENNEDY DR

244 KENNEDY DR

8 QUARRY LANE 185 575 570 MCMOD MD

12 QUARRY LANE 186 575 507 MCMOD MD

15 QUARRY LANE 186 575 510 MCMOD MD

4 STONE LANE

*******

MANDATORY

MULTI-USE DISTRICT

12 BICKFORD RD

167-169 CENTRE ST

185 CENTRE ST

0 CHARLES ST

22 CHARLES ST

28-30 CHARLES ST

31 COMMERCIAL ST

51 COMMERCIAL ST

65 COMMERCIAL ST

77 COMMERCIAL ST

89 COMMERCIAL ST

99-109 COMMERCIAL ST

43 DARTMOUTH ST

4-6 EVELYN PLACE

2 FLORENCE ST

480 MAIN ST

492- 500 MAIN ST

521- 539 MAIN ST

69 MIDDLESEX ST

PLEASANT ST

#031133309

41- 49 PLEASANT ST

51- 61 PLEASANT ST

126-150 PLEASANT ST

137-147 PLEASANT ST

157 PLEASANT ST

169-185 PLEASANT ST

215 PLEASANT ST

321 PLEASANT ST

332 PLEASANT ST

50- 52 SUMMER ST

54- 72 SUMMER ST