Residents fired up over housing plan, zoning changes for new construction

By Barbara Taormina

The City Council had a short but emotional meeting this week centered around the city’s proposed housing production plan, which was tabled. The meeting began with the public comment segment, which had residents lining up to speak both in favor and against the 150-page housing plan that took 18 months of planning, meetings and surveys to put together.

Director of Planning and Community Development Tom Skwierawski described the plan as a road map for the city to build the right type of housing in the most appropriate locations to meet the needs of people at all income levels.

The plan is in response to the 2021 MBTA Communities Law aimed at increasing housing in those communities. Municipalities that fail to create zones that allow multifamily housing lose access to a variety of state grants and funding sources. Several towns, including Marblehead, Wakefield, Milton and Holden, have rejected the law.

Over the weekend, the city was blanketed with flyers that picked apart the Revere housing production plan, criticized the council and, according to Skwierawski, mischaracterized aspects of the plan. According to the director, the plan would protect Revere from 40B developments, which give developers a pass on local zoning regulations if a community’s housing stock has less than 10 percent affordable housing. In addition to providing much-needed housing, the plan would also stimulate economic growth, ease traffic and increase the city’s economic competitiveness.

Several of the more controversial strategies included in the plan are zoning reforms that call for no minimum lot size, eliminating the requirement for lot lines and allowing two- and three-family developments by right in all residential districts. The plan also calls for the adoption of the Community Preservation Act, which would assist with affordable housing but would also require a surcharge of one to three percent on property taxes.

The anonymous flyer presented the plan as a strategy to blow apart city zoning regulations, raise taxes and usher in a tsunami of new residential housing all with the blessing of the City Council. Councillors received slews of phone calls over the weekend from concerned constituents worried the plan was a done deal.

Throughout the meeting Skwierawski and councillors assured residents in the audience and those watching the meeting on Revere TV that the plan was a proposal that would continue to be discussed. But that did not seem to reassure residents worried about densely packed neighborhoods and problems with parking and traffic.

Christine Robertson said she had read part of the plan that she described as convoluted. “It seems hell bent on turning Revere into a concrete jungle,” she said. Robertson acknowledged the need for affordable housing but asked why the responsibility to provide it was falling on Revere when there are other more affluent communities on transit lines. She said she did not want to look out her window and look into the window of her next-door neighbor.

She was followed by a Lantern Road resident who said she wanted to see more affordable housing in the city. “Housing is too expensive. I’m trying to stay in Revere, please help,” she told the council.

Another longtime resident said she fears developers would exploit some of the provisions in the plan to build and open rooming houses, which she feels is a threat to neighborhoods. She added that people have settled in Revere because they wanted a suburban environment, and the plan would disrupt that.

Laura Holmes, who was a member of the working group who put together the housing production plan, told councillors that a lot of research went into the plan and it contains many good ideas. “This plan, it’s not take it or leave it,” said Holmes. “It’s a commitment we’re going to move forward, we’re going to do something.”

Taylor Giuffre-Catalano said, as a young person, she isn’t looking at the possibility of buying a house in Revere, her hometown, but she does hope to be able to rent a place.

Councillors felt there are positive elements in the plan they could support, and all agreed that more discussion is needed before any vote to officially adopt it.

City Council President Anthony Cogliandro explained that the decision to table the plan would give officials and residents more time for questions and discussion.