To the editor:
This letter is to share the Planning Board’s view on the Article 42 Citizen’s Petition at Wellesley’s Annual Town Meeting regarding the Residential Incentive Overlay (RIO) zoning bylaw. The Planning Board voted 4-0 to not support the article. The reasons for not supporting are summarized below:
1. The proposed change takes decisions away from Town Meeting. The result of this Citizen’s Petition is to take RIO zoning decisions away from Town Meeting; precisely where decisions like this should be taken. Town Meeting has shown every capability to consider the nuances, and to say NO to proposals it doesn’t favor.
2. Lack of deliberation and consensus building. Article 42 is on the warrant, as allowed by law, via 10 signatures; mostly from a single neighborhood. Public meetings with citizen input were not held prior to the proposal being placed on the warrant. The Planning Board believes public policy should be created with significant outreach, consensus building, and open public meetings.
3. Wait for the Strategic Housing Plan results? The loudest point made during the RIO Map Change debate at 2024 Special Town Meeting was that the Town has paid for a Strategic Housing Study and should wait for the results before taking any actions. The Planning Board believes this standard should still stand, and we should wait. As of this letter, the conclusions and recommendations of the Housing Plan project is not available. Many who in October strongly stated the need to wait are now proponents of the Citizen’s Petition.
4. The Planning Board will be comprehensively studying the RIO bylaw. The Planning Board voted to initiate a public task force to study the RIO bylaw; with broad-based citizen participation, thorough analysis and public input, via open meeting standards— after the results of the Strategic Housing Plan are published. The Planning Board believes all aspects of the RIO zoning bylaw should be assessed—a broader scope than the Article 42 petition.
Wellesley has written the RIO bylaw twice before: in the late 1990s and the late 2010s. In both cases, it was done to focus on a specific need faced by the Town. The Planning Board believes it’s time for a third rewrite of RIO to address today’s needs, and sees the Citizen’s Petition as a blunt approach to revert to the 1998 language that eliminates the possibility of using the RIO tool in 20 of 26 zoning districts. Wellesley is not the same as it was in 1998, and we ought to look forward and consider an updated RIO bylaw via lengthy public discussion.
Thank you
Tom Taylor
Chair of the Planning Board
Precinct H TMM
29 year Wellesley resident
