Town Meeting 11/18 and MBTA Zoning Laws

Written By Lindsay Banks

Manchester-by-the-Sea will be holding a crucial vote on MBTA Zoning Laws at the upcoming Special Town Meeting on Monday, November 18 at 6:30pm at the High School. I believe Parks & Rec is working on providing child care for the meeting. This vote is pretty important for setting a course for Manchester’s future.

Personally, I will be voting YES on articles to approve MBTA Zoning Laws because I want to:

  • Create affordable housing opportunities for young families and seniors

  • Keep taxes low

  • Help our schools

  • Preserve land and open spaces

  • Honor the character of the town

  • Retain our Town’s right to determine our future

I will share my reasoning in the coming weeks leading up to the November 18 town meeting. Until then, it is important to get the facts about MBTA Zoning Laws right. There is a lot of misinformation floating around.  This email includes the basic information you need to know.

What are Zoning Laws?

Zoning laws are laws that dictate how land can be used in a specific area. For example, you would not want a major industrial park built in the middle of a quiet residential neighborhood. Zoning laws can regulate housing, which affects how many people can live in an area, or population density. Multifamily housing would create more density and housing that is more affordable. Single family housing is less dense, but more expensive. Of Manchester’s seven current zones that include residences, five limit residential dwellings to only single family structures, although some multifamilies in town have been “grandfathered in.” 

What are the MBTA Zoning Laws?

Because of a statewide housing shortage, the state passed a law  (Section 3A of MGL 40A)  in January 2021 that requires towns with an MBTA station to change their zoning laws to allow for more multifamily residences. It passed under Gov. Charlie Baker and is being implemented by Gov. Maura Healy.  The purpose of the law is to create more housing in towns that have the benefit of a train station and would be accessible to households without a car. 

Failure to comply with the law would make the Town ineligible for certain grants and risk the loss of other state grants (MBTS received $4 million from the state in 2024 - slide 19). The state has threatened and carried out a lawsuit against towns that fail to comply.

Here is some basic information to know about MGL 40A:

  • The law does not mandate any building at all. Rather, the law states that, in Towns served by the MBTA there must be at least one district where multifamily residences are allowed “by right.” 

    • “By right” means that a special permit or variance is not required, but any site under the law would still be required to go through a Site Plan Review. It does not mean the homeowner can do anything they want. 

  • The new zones that allow for multi-families would “overlay” on top of the zones in our existing by-laws. 

    • Manchester needs to allow for multifamily residences on 37 acres to comply with the law, 14.8 acres of which need to be within a half-mile radius from the train station. (Manchester’s total acreage is 5,100.)

    • “Multi-family” does not necessarily mean a large apartment complex. Multi-family housing is also a building with three or more residential units or two duplexes on a single lot.  

    • The minimum density required is 15 units per acre. The units on 10-12 Summer Street (near Laughing Gull) are denser than that at 17.73 units per acre.

    • These districts cannot be restricted by age (e.g. senior housing) in the zoning laws and must be suitable for families with children. However, as long as a project complies with the new by-laws’ rules, a senior housing project could be built. The town could encourage future developments to be senior housing but it may not require it.

What does this mean for Manchester?

  • For individual homeowners in town:

    • Homeowners in the Districts are not required to build anything.

    • Existing rights under current zoning laws allowing for single-family homes retained.

    • If the lot is large enough, the overlay multi-family zoning laws will allow homeowners to add residential units to their property within the parameters of the new by law.  Homeowners will have more options to what they may do with their property 

    • The local laws will still regulate what is allowed to be built by stipulating lot size, parking, wetland protection, public health requirements, and conservation restrictions. 

    • All projects are subject to a Site Plan Review through the Planning Board. This process includes an opportunity for abutters to weigh in on any project allowed under the Multifamily Zoning Laws. 

  • For our town:

    • The Task Force intentionally selected lots that were least likely to be developed because they were either recently developed or are small. This will likely result in either no new building or only small scale projects.

    • The Task Force predicts  that the zoning changes it proposed to the state will comply with the law and allow for the slow addition of multifamily units over a period of time. 

      • Although technically the multifamily zoning laws call for 559 units, 227 of those units already exist in parts of town that are already densely populated. The Task Force did this on purpose to limit development downtown. A recent “Propensity to Change” study based on financial factors, like land value and interest rates, revealed that only 134 units would be likely to be built under the proposed changes. Only 34 of those units would be downtown and 100 of those would be in the Beaver Dam Road district, near the MAC and currently fully occupied by a successful storage business. (See MBTA Task Force Virtual Forum on 9/27/24).

    • In order to preserve the architectural “character of the town,” the proposed zoning law includes a Design Review Board with professional design experience to assist the Board in reviewing proposed buildings.  Design Guidelines can describe specific requirements for:

      • Location, massing, and orientation of buildings

      • Rules for the placement of:

        • Doors and windows

        • Trim details

        • Roof pitch and length

        • Use of dormers

        • Suggested building materials 

        • Parking and vehicular access 

    • Our town DPW has stated that the town has the water and sewer infrastructure to accommodate the increase in units.  (See question 15.)

    • Because our school enrollment is recently down and Manchester built a new school in the past 5 years, we have the physical and programmatic space for more students. This would be to the advantage of our schools because: 

      • In order to maintain a highly-ranked school district, we need to maintain a certain level of enrollment in order to offer a breadth of course offerings in more advanced courses. 

      • Currently, MERSD has 83 school choice students, or students who attend from surrounding towns. 

      • More enrollment will require more teachers which could lower class sizes. 

    • Loss of state grants could be detrimental to our town finances. 

      • MBTS received $4+ million in state grants in 2024.  The loss of these state grants puts a heavy burden on the town to cover expenses for important budget items like schools, infrastructure repairs and police and fire services.  

      • For every $300,000 added expense, taxes go up 1%. A loss of $1 million in state grants could lead to a tax increase of 3%, all other things being equal.  A loss of $4 million in state grants could potentially raise taxes by 12%.  

      • Failure to comply will likely result in a civil suite from the state. The town would need to allocate limited time and resources to this lawsuit, diverting money and attention from pressing town needs.

      • This could affect our town’s ability to pay for basic necessities, such as the school budget, as well as much needed infrastructure projects, including the library renovation/ rebuild. 

Lindsay Banks
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Election Updates: Planning Board and MERSD Budget Update