A total of three people attended a public forum on the town’s new MBTA Communities Law zoning plan in person, with another 30 or so online. A few people asked questions about details of the plan. No one criticized it.
At the Marblehead High School Library Tuesday night, Brendan Callhan, director of Community Development and Planning, walked through the proposal, which includes two multifamily districts: Broughton Road and the Tedesco Country Club site.
The plan increases density in both areas. The total number of potential units is 90 —120 at Broughton Road and 780 at the Tedesco site. Select Board Chair Dan Fox and Planning Board member Marc Liebman, also at the meeting, emphasized that 3A only zones for multifamily housing, it does not require anything be built.
The previous, rejected plan included sites along Pleasant Street and Tioga Way.
Marblehead is currently out of compliance with 3A requirements, making the town ineligible for millions of dollars in state grants. Fox and Liebman spent months meeting with 3A critics to find a compromise.
Next steps
Resident Eileen Mathieu asked if Callahan, Fox and Liebman were confident that this version of 3A would pass at Town Meeting in May.
“There are a few people who are still going to be vocally opposed to this,” Liebman said. “Some of the primary leaders of ‘No on 3,’ although they don’t agree with 3A in general, recognize the work that went into the plan.”
John DiPiano, who led anti-3A referendum efforts, has told the Current that if it passes at Town Meeting this May, he will not seek to overturn it again.
Next, the Planning Board will hold a public meeting on the new proposal March 10.
