Have a Safe & Happy Holidays! Vol. 34, No.51 -FREEwww.advocatenews.net Free Every Friday City’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office donates toys to A.C. Whelan students T he Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Offi ce collected approximately 400 toys from residents to donate to A.C. Whelan Elementary School students on Tuesday. 781-286-8500 Friday, December 20, 2024 Residents fired up over housing plan, zoning changes for new construction By Barbara Taormina T he City Council had a short but emotional meeting this week centered around the city’s proposed housing production plan, which was tabled. The meeting began with the public comment segment, which had residents lining up to speak both in favor and against the 150-page housing plan that took 18 months of planning, meetings and surveys to put together. Director of Planning and Shown from left: Assistant Principal Nicole Cascetta, Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Asmaa Abou-Fouda, Mayor Patrick Keefe, DEI Director Steven Morabito, Principal Rachel Shanley, and Reading Specialist Gina Petrone accepted toys. A.C. Whelan Elementary School Secretary Marisa Hurley with some of the toys during a drop-off on Tuesday. (Advocate photos by Tara Vocino) Community Development Tom Skwierawski described the plan as a road map for the city to build the right type of housing in the most appropriate locations to meet the needs of people at all income levels. The plan is in response to the 2021 MBTA Communities Law aimed at increasing housing in those communities. Municipalities that fail to create zones that allow multifamily housing lose access to a variety of state grants and funding sources. Several towns, including Marblehead, Wakefi eld, Milton and Holden, have rejected the law. Over the weekend, the city was blanketed with flyers that picked apart the Revere housing production plan, criticized the council and, according to Skwierawski, mischaracterized aspects of the plan. According to the director, the plan would protect Revere from 40B developments, which give developers a pass on local zoning regulations if a community’s housing stock has less than 10 percent affordable housing. In addition to providing much-needed housing, the plan would also stimulate economic growth, ease traffi c and increase the city’s economic competitiveness. Several of the more controversial strategies included in the plan are zoning reforms that call for no minimum lot size, eliminating the requirement for lot lines and allowing two- and three-family developments by right in all residential districts. The plan also calls for the adoption of the Community Preservation Act, which would assist with affordable housing but would also require a surcharge of one to three percent on property taxes. The anonymous flyer presented the plan as a strategy to blow apart city zoning regulations, raise taxes and usher in a tsunami of new residential housing all with the blessing of the City Council. Councillors received slews of phone calls over the weekend from concerned constituents worried the plan was a done deal. Throughout the meeting Skwierawski and councillors assured residents in the audience and those watching the meeting on Revere TV that the plan was a proposal that would continue to be discussed. But that did not seem to reassure residents worried about densely packed neighborhoods and problems with parking and traffi c. Christine Robertson said she had read part of the plan that she described as convoluted. “It seems hell bent on turning Revere into a concrete jungle,” she said. Robertson acknowlRESIDENTS | SEE Page 2
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