A citizen petition being brought forth to Wellesley Annual Town Meeting seeks to return the town’s residential incentive overlay (RIO) zoning bylaw toward allowing multi-unit residential development in commercial areas but not in single resident and general residence districts.

Lifetime resident Peter Welburn, a Town Meeting member, previewed his petition before the Planning Board on Jan. 6 (see Wellesley Media recording about 2 hours, 41 minutes in) and then gave a fuller briefing to the Advisory Committee on Jan. 15 (see Wellesley Media recording about 2 hours, 45 minutes in and Welburn’s draft presentation). Welburn plans to return to the Planning Board later this month, and to take part in a public hearing about Town Meeting zoning articles next month.

The citizen petition reads:

Proposed By-Law

To see if the Town will vote to amend its zoning By-Laws to allow for the application of a Residential Incentive Overlay District only over any Business District, Business District A, Industrial District, Industrial District A, Transportation District, and the Lower Falls Village Commercial District.

The petition comes in the wake of Special Town Meeting in October rejecting two articles that would have changed zoning maps to allow for RIOs. While the articles focused on zoning map changes, a developer had shared plans to build multifamily housing at two sites, Washington Court and Walnut Street, in Lower Falls. A condo project in the works, at Rte. 9/Cedar Street, got Town Meeting’s blessing as a RIO last year and is currently going through the town permitting process.

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Welburn told both Planning and Advisory that his proposal is an attempt to return the RIO bylaw to what he described as its original intent from 1998.

“Do we want to be more like Brookline? I don’t think so,” he said at one point.

Welburn explained that the bylaw had been broadened in 2019 to allow RIOs in all zoning districts as part of the town’s effort to negotiate with 40B developers regarding luxury condo projects (with some affordable housing units) now known as Terrazza on Linden Street and the Bristol on Weston Road. The town at the time was attempting to meet the state’s 10% affordable housing threshold, which it since has reached.

The resident ticked off a handful of reasons behind the petition, including that people he spoke to before and after Special Town Meeting and at Strategic Housing Plan meetings don’t want RIOs in residential districts and fear for the loss of Wellesley’s”town feel.” He also suggested that more single-family homes could be torn down to make way for multifamily projects if the RIO bylaw stays as it is (the RIO route was considered for such a proposed condo complex at Cliff Road and Worcester St. last year that ultimately fell through). Welburn also cited the amount of work RIOs require of town staff and the emergence of the MBTA Communities zoning designed to encourage more multifamily housing in town near public transportation.

What’s more, he said RIOs have been much more beneficial in town for developers and realtors than for those seeking more affordable housing options.

Welburn’s proposal may face opposition from housing advocates at Town Meeting. Andrew Mikula, a resident with the Building a Better Wellesley who often speaks at Wellesley meetings in favor of housing developments, said during the Planning Board meeting that he opposes this article because it “essentially proposes to remove the possibility that any RIO would touch 97% of the land area on which you can currently legally build housing in Wellesley.”

Advisory Committee presentation and discussion

The Advisory Committee is an appointed body that vets articles ahead of Town Meeting and makes recommendations to Town Meeting. In the case of citizen petitions, Advisory meetings can have something of a workshop feel as members share ideas with the proponent to help them better prep for Town Meeting and the questions they might face.

During Welburn’s briefing and discussion with the Advisory Committee, some members wondered why the petition wouldn’t seek to revert the RIO bylaw completely back to the original, including density of 17 rather than 24 units per acre, and going back to a minimum area of 2 acres rather than 1. “We’re just trying to keep it simple,” Welburn replied to one member.

One member’s takeaway from the presentation, and based on the fact that few RIOs have gone through, was whether the proponent might almost be asking: “Why have a RIO at all?”

While Welburn emphasized taking a simple approach with the article, some Advisory members felt his presentation might have too much noise in it that could take away from his true focus. For example, some questioned his bringing up the issue of tear downs being replaced with mansions, and possibly multifamily developments. One might member pondered whether the article might be too simple an approach to a complicated problem.

One question that’s been raised in debates over recently proposed housing developments has been, ‘Why not wait until the Strategic Housing Plan is done?” Advisory’s Lucienne Ronco asked that question of Welburn—why not wait on such possible zoning changes until after the plan is complete? Welburn acknowledged the point, but said his experience from meeting people in the areas where recently proposed RIOs would have been located and hearing about their anxiety made him think that action should be taken sooner than later.

Separately, Ronco asked about why target the RIO bylaw specifically, when the town has other formal review processes to help ensure projects are vetted properly.

Advisory’s Hanna Bonin toward the end of the discussion said she sees the article as a reaction to the town “playing whack-a-mole” with assorted housing articles and presenting an opportunity to stop such developments until a strategic plan is out with a roadmap for “thoughtful growth.”

Advisory is still in the early stages of mulling Town Meeting articles, and next up will have further discussions and then make recommendations.

More: Wellesley citizen petitions—keeping Town Meeting lively, current, worldly