Wakefield has now joined the growing ranks of Massachusetts cities and towns that have decided to “just say no” to the state meddling in local zoning. Town Meeting voters outright refused to comply with the state’s mandate forcing MBTA communities to allow multifamily housing as of right near public transportation.

Last week, Town meeting rejected three different compliance models: the Panning Board’s model that went way beyond the state requirements, a minimum compliance back-up plan quietly prepared by the Planning Board, and a different minimum compliance model from a citizens’ petition.

Town Meeting voters said, “Thanks but no thanks” to all three plans.

And the Planning Board has no one to blame but themselves.

Wakefield Planning Board members saw the state’s efforts to impose its will on the town and thought, “This doesn’t go far enough. We can do better.” They couldn’t resist the urge to expand on the mandate, allowing even more multifamily housing over an even larger district than required by their like-minded central planners at the state level.

So, they supersized their compliance plan and told residents to take it or leave it.

Residents opted to leave it.

Over the course of multiple meetings and public hearings, residents told the Planning Board they didn’t want their expanded model. At meeting after meeting, resident after resident told the Planning Board that they favored doing the minimum to comply with the state mandate.

But while the Planners appeared to listen politely, they were unmoved. They were the “subject matter experts,” and they knew better.

Well, the voters are the subject matter experts on what kind of town they want to live in, and they’re sick of all the multifamily development they see everywhere they look. They couldn’t understand why the Planning Board would voluntarily invite any more multifamily development than absolutely necessary to comply with the law.
And they said so. Over and over and over again.

Over the course of the last six months, more and more residents became increasingly frustrated with the Planning Board’s stubborn indifference to public opinion.

If, at any point during those months leading up to Town Meeting, the Planning Board had been responsive to the public and recommended a minimum compliance model, they could have undercut most of the resistance and the plan would have sailed through Town Meeting the way most zoning measures do – almost unnoticed.

But by thumbing their noses at the public, they provoked a backlash. If the Planning Board wouldn’t meet the public halfway, they’d get nothing at all.

And that’s what happened.

So now, instead of being done with this issue and having a compliance model in place well before the Dec. 31, 2024 deadline, the Planning Board is faced with going back to the drawing board, creating a new compliance model and trying to sell it at the fall Town Meeting to an already skeptical public.

Good luck with that.
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[This column originally appeared in the May 9, 2024 Wakefield Daily Item.]