THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, February 7, 2025 Page 3 Malden City Council, Planning Board conclude successful municipal ‘sprint’ on new zoning regulations City officials worked together on Malden-specific ordinance on new Accessory Dwelling Unit policy mandated by state By Steve Freker M ore often than not, when it comes to an important new municipal law or policy, it is customary to go by the “it is not a sprint, it is a marathon.” Not this time, however. With no time to spare, the Malden City Council, led by Council President Ryan O’Malley and the Malden Planning Board, steered by City Planner Michelle Romero and Chairperson Chuck Ioven, moved the proverbial mountains in the past 10-14 days to make sure that Malden had its own stamp of approval on a top-shelf municipal policy. When the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities announced in late December its newest mandate to address the housing crisis in Massachusetts, it came with a sweeping mandate giving the go-ahead for Mass. residents to add Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) to their properties. Known as “granny flats,” and “in-law apartments” as well, it gave the so-called “green light” for virtually unlimited new additions to existing dwellings. The mandate also gave a February 2, 2025, deadline for individual cities and towns to formulate and register with the state their own desired adjustments and protocols for these ADU units, as long as they fit under the general state guidelines. “If we did not come up our own zoning changes, we would have had to follow whatever the Commonwealth of Massachusetts dictated to us regarding ADUs,” Council President O’Malley, who represents Ward 4 in Malden, said early in the process. Since then, the City Council and Planning Board literally made municipal history in sprinting to the finish of formulating – then enrolling and ordaining – changes to the municipal ordinance regarding ADUs. The biggest history-maker was the fact that last week the City Council planned and held no less than three full City Council meetCharles Ioven Malden Planning Board Chairperson ings in the same week on three consecutive evenings – Tuesday, January 28, Wednesday, January 29 and Thursday, January 30 – unprecedented in city history. All three of those meetings came after a nearly three hour Malden Planning Board meeting held on Monday, January 27, where members laboriously toiled with City Council members – most notably Ordinance Committee Chairperson Steve Winslow (Ward 6 Councillor) – to Ryan O’Malley City Council President come up with recommendations for ordinance change amendments centered on ADUs. On Aug. 6, 2024, Governor Healey signed the Affordable Homes Act into law (Chapter 150 of the Acts of 2024). Section 8 of the Affordable Homes Act amends the Zoning Act to allow ADUs up to 900 square feet to be built, by right, in single-family zoning districts. In May of 2024, Ward 3 Councillor Amanda Linehan, who also works professionally with the Massachusetts Municipal Association, signalled to her colleagues this legislation was coming up quickly and that “we have to be ready for it in Malden.” Malden Councillors, led by Linehan, Winslow and Councillors-at-Large Craig Spadafora and Carey McDonald, began working on the issue at that time, and the work continued this Council session as well, with the Ordinance Committee meeting for hours-long sessions four times before last week’s meetings. The newly revamped ADU ordinance, replete with just under a dozen approved Planning Board recommendations, was enrolled by a 10-1 vote of the City Council at the January 28 meeting, with Councillor-at-Large Spadafora opposed. At the January 29 meeting, the new ordinance was ordained by a unanimous vote in favor. On Thursday, January 30, a third Council meeting in three nights was held, just in case there was a reconsideration motion by one of the members, so the deadline of February 2 could be met. There was no reconsideration. The two most pertinent ZONING | SEE PAGE 4 RON’S OIL Call For PRICE MELROSE, MA 02176 NEW CUSTOMER’S WELCOME ACCEPTING VISA, MASTERCARD & DISCOVER (781) 397-1930 OR (781) 662-8884 100 GALLON MINIMUM
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