The town is considering rezoning the 32 acres of Tedesco Country Club located in Marblehead for multifamily housing to help meet requirements of the MBTA Communities Act.
“We feel pretty confident that we can make it work there,” Select Board Chair Dan Fox told the Current.
Fox, Planning Board member Marc Liebman and Town Planner Alex Eitler are working with a state-funded consultant to identify areas for rezoning.
The MBTA Communities Act requires 177 cities and towns, including Marblehead, to zone for more multifamily housing in an effort to ease the state’s housing crunch. Marblehead needs to zone for 897 units.
In July, voters rejected the town’s original plan that identified Broughton Road, Tioga Way and a part of Pleasant Street (near Village Plaza) for denser zoning. Marblehead is out of compliance with the state law and has already lost millions of dollars in grants.
Fox said the town is looking at two other possible areas in town. He declined to identify those, saying not enough analysis has been done.
The consultant, Barrett Planning Group, believes the 32 acres at Tedesco may pass muster with the state, according to Fox.
“It works within the guidelines of the parameters to meet the state’s numerical requirements,” he said. The town would need at least one other 3A parcel, which would likely be Broughton Road.
The question is: Will the state accept the posh golf club as a serious location for multifamily zoning? The Current has contacted the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, with no immediate response.
“We can’t predict what the state is going to say,” Fox emphasized. “We’re making sure everything we do complies with the word of the law.”
Fox said the Planning Board will likely submit a new 3A plan to the state in the “next week or two” and then start to hold public hearings.
As for Tedesco, Fox said, “I have had conversations with their board. They understand it’s an overlay and not a requirement to build. It will have no effect on their use or their financial situation.”
Fox said the town is working hard to meet the concerns of critics who say the original 3A plan would lead to too much congestion along West Shore Drive and Pleasant Street.
