As Wellesley prepares to release its long-anticipated Strategic Housing Plan this month, residents, advocates and town officials are clashing over a familiar dilemma: how to balance neighborhood preservation with the need for more diverse and affordable housing.
The town’s Planning Department is working with a consulting firm, Barrett Planning Group, to draft the plan. Eric Arbeene, Wellesley’s planning director, said the town is taking a “strategic approach” to look at what kinds of housing the community needs, from affordable and senior housing to “missing middle” options like townhouses and condos.
The plan would succeed the housing production plan, which was adopted in 2018 to help Wellesley meet a state rule requiring at least 10% of the town’s housing to be affordable.
The town is incorporating input from a public survey, community forums and discussions with advocacy groups. Arbeene, Meghan Jop, the executive director of government services, and Corey Testa, the assistant executive director, meet biweekly with Barrett Planning Group to discuss the plan’s progress.
“Wellesley is a very affluent community where the average sale price is about $2 million for a home,” Arbeene said. “You combine that with high demand for housing, not just in the town, but across the whole region and state, it’s … what does the town want? That was the genesis of the public survey, these meetings, and whatnot — to see what the town wants.”
Strategic Housing Plan forum (June, 2024)
More than 1,400 residents participated in the townwide survey last year, a small sample size for a town of almost 30,000 people. While nearly three-quarters of residents said it’s important to stay in Wellesley as they age, fewer than half of all respondents, including non-residents, said they could afford Wellesley’s $1.9 million median single-family home if they were to buy one in 2023.
The open-ended responses were split: Some residents voiced concern about losing community character, while others stressed the need for housing that teachers, older people, young families and other workers can afford.
Ann-Mara Lanza, founder and co-chair of Building a Better Wellesley, a housing advocacy group, said the survey reinforced what her group already sees: a shortage of attainable homes. However, she emphasized that since not everyone in town participated in the survey, it is not completely representative of the community.
“There are definitely people who feel strongly that they don’t want Wellesley to ever change – they’re out there,” Lanza said. “And then there are other people who see the needs, who want to find a solution for seniors, who understand that multi-family housing is not an evil but that it is a piece of the puzzle.”
Katie Schuller founded Neighbors for Better Planning — a group focused on neighborhood preservation in development decisions — after she was concerned about a proposed 64-unit condo project threatening wetlands and historic homes near Cliff Road. She said people also voiced their concerns in the community forums on Nov. 14 and 17.
“People basically said that they like the town the way it is,” Schuller said, “and that they wanted to protect our open spaces, the safety of the town — those kinds of things.”
The plan is also being shaped by a town-appointed Housing Task Force made up of public officials and community members. Building a Better Wellesley was initially on the task force, and then Jop expanded it to include Neighbors for Better Planning, Friends of Brookside and Wellesley Conservation Land Trust to get alternative perspectives, Jop said in a Feb. 27 Advisory Committee meeting.
“The Housing Task Force does not vote or approve anything,” Jop said in the meeting. “They work within the public bodies.”
Funding for the Strategic Housing Plan came from Town Meeting, Jop said. She also said that it is taking longer than expected to come out because the town is prioritizing public opinion.
“None of our plans come out on time, in particular in Wellesley, to be quite honest with you, because we try and include public engagement and get back to people as best we can and be inclusive,” Jop said in the committee meeting.
At the center of the town’s housing tension is the Residential Incentive Overlay, or RIO, bylaw, which allows multi-unit projects on sites larger than one acre and near commercial centers and transit.
In 2019, the bylaw was broadened to allow RIOs in all zoning districts, including single-residence zones. That change helped Wellesley push forward with major developments — including Terrazza on Linden Street and The Bristol on Weston Road — and surpass the state’s 10% affordable housing threshold.
Schuller says her group wants more transparent planning surrounding RIOs.
“None of the abutters had been notified, or informed, or talked to,” Schuller said about the proposed Cliff Road project.
That concern has continued with Article 42, a citizen petition that would restrict RIOs to commercial and industrial zones. It is on the Town Meeting warrant and is expected to be discussed in one of the scheduled sessions this week or next. Petitioners argue that this would help preserve neighborhood character and prevent unexpected development.
The Planning Board has voted 4-0 against Article 42. The board’s chair, Tom Taylor, outlined the reasons why in an April 4 Swellesley Report Letter to the Editor. In the letter, he advocated for awaiting the Strategic Housing Plan before making changes to the RIO bylaw.
Max Woolf, who spoke on behalf of the Charles River Regional Chamber in a Feb. 26 Advisory Committee meeting, advocated to oppose Article 42, and said eliminating RIOs from residential areas would affect the town’s workforce.
“For Wellesley’s health care facilities, child care centers, grocery stores and countless other businesses, attracting and retaining employees is directly tied to housing availability,” Woolf said. “Weakening the RIO bylaw further limits opportunities for the workforce that keeps Wellesley running.”
Last month, Wellesley voted to form a task force to review the RIO bylaw and recommend changes to it.
After about a year of work on the Strategic Housing Plan, residents are ready to see the results. However, Lanza says she would rather wait than have a rushed plan.
“I know we’d all like it like yesterday, but I’d rather have a more thorough job done, personally, from the consultant,” she said.
Barrett Planning Group is expected to give an update on the plan in late April or early May, Arbeene said.
This story is part of a partnership between the Swellesley Report and the Boston University Department of Journalism.