A DIVIDED MILTON Select Board tried to chart a path forward hours after the town was sued by Attorney General Andrea Campbell for violating the MBTA Communities law, but the effort was hindered by deep divisions on the panel.
The town has come under increasing pressure since its residents voted 54-46 percent on February 14 to reject a zoning plan that would have brought the municipality into compliance with the state law, which was intended to boost multi-family housing near public transit. In response, the Healey administration has withheld state grant funds from the community and Campbell on Tuesday filed suit against the town.
Milton officials now find themselves in the awkward position of trying to comply with the law in an angry community that soundly rejected their earlier effort at compliance. The divisions within the community are reflected on both the Planning Board, which will have to craft any new zoning plan, and the Select Board, the town’s top governing board.
Two of the five Select Board members – Erin Bradley and Benjamin Zoll, both supporters of the original zoning plan — said they wanted the Planning Board to move expeditiously to develop a new zoning plan that would be satisfactory to town residents and bring the town back into compliance with state law.
Two other board members – Richard Wells Jr. and Roxanne Musto — said they wanted to honor the town vote by moving to reclassify Milton as an “adjacent community” rather than a “rapid transit community” under the law.
Milton is home to a slow-moving, underfunded trolley line that runs from the Red Line’s southern terminus at Ashmont Station through Milton to Mattapan Square. State officials designated Milton as a rapid transit community under the law, requiring it to zone for a potential capacity of 2,461 housing units, or 25 percent of the current housing stock. Being reclassified as an adjacent community would require a zoning capacity equal to just 10 percent of the current housing stock.
The fifth member of the board, chair Michael Zullas, offered a four-point proposal aimed at reaching consensus. Two of his points were fairly noncontroversial – rethinking the earlier zoning plan for Granite Avenue and recruiting former members of town boards to help build consensus for the next zoning plan.
The other two points were more contentious. He favored pursuing reclassification of Milton as an “adjacent community” under the MBTA Communities law and asking Healey administration officials to delay revocation of grants to the municipality until three months after whenever Campbell obtains an injunction against the town.
The board was divided on reclassification, but seemed inclined to pursue it. Zoll, who opposes reclassification, said he would not stand in the way of a bid to pursue it even though he said it was “a bit of a fool’s errand.”
Musto and Wells strongly favored pursuing reclassification. “The voters of this town have spoken, and they spoke very loudly,” Wells said. “I intend to honor the vote and fight for that vote. I don’t view it as we’re breaking the law. Heck, if we didn’t throw tea overboard at the Boston Tea Party there might not be the United States of America today.”
Zoll suggested Wells tone down his rhetoric and not use talk of revolution in connection with what is basically a zoning fight. He noted one town resident had contacted board members urging the town to secede from Massachusetts. “That’s the kind of rhetoric going on here,” he said.
Wells apologized for his reference to the revolution, but said the governor and her administration are trying to bully the town into compliance. “They are trying to put us in a head lock and squeeze us until we say uncle,” he said.
Wells also indicated Milton is not alone in its opposition to the zoning law. “We are not alone in this fight,” he said.
There was also a dustup between Zoll and Musto about Zoll’s editing of a letter to state officials prior to the previous vote seeking clarification on whether the town’s classification as a “rapid transit” community was warranted. Zoll has come under fire for failing to note that he owns a house near the trolley line and he could have benefited financially if the house was expanded into multi-family housing under the original zoning plan. Zoll strongly disputed that, saying his ex-wife lives in the house and has lived there since prior to the passage of the MBTA Communities law.
Bradley said the vote in Milton only reflected opposition to the earlier zoning plan. She said the vote said nothing about reclassification or opposition to the law in general.
Bradley also had a problem with Zullas’s request that the Healey administration hold off on canceling grants to the town. She said the town was warned there would be consequences if it rejected the earlier zoning plan and missed the deadline for coming into compliance with the law. Now that the town has ignored the warnings, she said, it can’t ask that the consequences be waived.
“We are acting as if we should be above the law,” she said. “They have every right to do what they are doing.”
Zullus said Campbell in her lawsuit gave the town three months to come into compliance following a judge’s injunction. He said he is merely asking the Healey administration to hold off in revoking grants for the same period of time. He indicated he would craft language for making that case to the Healey administration.
The Select Board, like the Planning Board last week, indicated it could take some time to craft a new zoning plan and bring it to town meeting. The Planning Board said a new plan would probably not be ready until the fall, while some Select Board members said there may be a need to schedule a special town meeting earlier.
Four Milton residents, all of them women, came before the Select Board and said they had formed a group called One Town to work to bring the town together on a zoning plan. They said town residents need accurate information and places to share their thoughts as a new zoning plan is crafted. The women offered to help.
“We don’t all agree with each other on everything, but we are very concerned, as you all are, about the divide we witnessed happening in Milton,” said Kristan Bagley Jones.
For a back and forth between Milton and the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities about the town’s classification under the MBTA Communities Act, click here for a letter from Milton to the state and here for the state’s response.
