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Email for Town Meeting Members
Please copy and send this letter to your Town Meeting Members to ask for their support.

Dear Town Meeting Member:

 

I am writing to convey my serious concern that numerous zoning proposals being brought before Town Meeting next week are short-sighted and may harm the fabric of our community, irreversibly—and before I and my neighbors have had the chance to express our views through the Comprehensive Planning Process just begun.

 

I recognize that affordable housing is a national, state-wide, and regional problem, and that we in Brookline must do our part. But the proposals before you will not solve the affordability problem. Instead, many of these changes will mean more teardowns of existing affordable housing and its replacement with luxury housing, while creating ugly, out-of-scale boxes that threaten precious open space and compromise quality of life.

 

I urge you to consider the serious consequences if these articles pass, and to cast your votes accordingly:

 

Article 7:  REFERRAL to the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee.

                 Well-intentioned, but new rules may still result in more demolitions and replacement with high-end luxury housing.

                

Article 8:  REFERRAL to the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee.

                 Removes all zoning guardrails for lot size to accommodate additional housing in the highest-density areas.

 

Article 9:  REFERRAL to the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee.

                 Incentivizes demolitions by allowing a third unit throughout 2-family districts, and encourages replacement by 3-story structures with luxury units.

 

Article 10:  FAVORABLE ACTION

                  Expanded material options represent a thoughtful refinement of the Harvard Street form-based code.

 

Article 11:  NO ACTION

                  Introduces unpredictable outcomes by letting the Planning Board deviate from significant Harvard Street form-based standards..

 

Article 14:  REFERRAL to the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee.

                  Allows legally murky setback waivers and inconsistently, only in M-1 districts.

 

Article 15:  Vote FAVORABLE ACTION on the Jonas/Pehlke Amendment, and if it passes, then

                  FAVORABLE ACTION on the AMENDED main motion.

                  Aligns the Brookline ADU by-law with the recently passed Affordable Homes Act to reduce potential negative neighborhood impacts on as many as 8,075 parcels.

 

Even small zoning changes, when applied on the scale of a town, can have vast consequences. Great results require thoughtful, long-range planning.

 

Let’s put our energy into the comprehensive planning process already underway that will allow us to look at these issues in a considered and holistic way, together, rather than undercutting it with piecemeal efforts.

 

Thanks in advance for your consideration.

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