We are a group of Needham residents committed to retaining our town’s character, and to the belief that zoning should be a local decision and not ceded to the state.
We believe in building more housing in Needham, but we believe it should be envisioned, designed and vetted by the local town authorities, not by a “one-size-fits-all” edict from the state of Massachusetts.
We believe that everyone involved in this important decision (our group, Town Meeting members, town departments and boards, other citizens) has “skin in the game,” and we’ll stipulate all are trying to do the best for Needham now and in the future. There are different visions, however: some people like to live in dense, lively urban areas such as Cambridge or Somerville. Others (like us) like quiet, leafy, minimally congested, moderately paced suburbs like Needham.
We believe there are significant risks in adopted either of the two rezoning options that the HONE committee has proposed. We’ve worked tirelessly to research and understand the MBTA Communities Act with all of its twists and turns, and more important, the impact it would have on our town. We’ve carefully studied the two options that the HONE committee has proposed, and believe that there are assumptions underlying their recommendations that are not widely known or understood and do not make sense.
We believe that there are significant risks in turning over zoning authority of 50 acres of Needham to state control. The MBTA Communities Act and its 3A Guidelines are untested and untried, and could potentially be deemed unconstitutional.
Since this is the biggest rezoning that would be done in Needham in over 80 years, it’s important to get it right since once done, we can’t go back. Once turned over to the state, we can’t go back. We’d rather see our town’s officials and informed citizens work together to look into the future to define opportunities for new housing, and make those decisions locally.
