MBTA Communities Advisory Committee

NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Updated March 11, 2024 @ 3:10 pm

NEW 03/11/2024 - The MBTA Communities Advisory Committee will hold its next regular meeting on Thursday, March 14, 2024 at 7:30 pm. This will be a hybrid meeting and while in person can be attended in The Gallery in the Homer Building. At this meeting, the Committee will be discussing the four remaining scenarios and if there is a clear preference at this point. Please see agenda HERE.

02/15/2024 - The MBTA Communities Advisory Committee held its third Public Forum on the program Thursday, February 15, 2024 at the Beech Street Center. The presentation for this event can be downloaded HERE. Draft maps for Scenario 1-3 and 4 are uploaded to both the Meeting Materials and Meeting Presentation tabs at left. You can now access video recordings of both recent public forums on this page.

01/30/2024 - See Glossary of Terms provided in persistent links to the left and can be viewed HERE also.

01/29/2024 - The MBTA Communities Advisory Committee has posted meeting notes from the Developers Focus Group held remotely on January 19, 2024. You can find these notes posted within the Meeting Materials and Handouts tab to the left of the body of this page.

QUICK LINKS


The MBTA Communities Advisory Committee has been established by the Select Board as a Committee to advise the Select and Planning Boards on M.G.L c. 40A Section 3A (the Zoning Act) that requires an MBTA community to have at least 1 zoning district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing (three or more units on a single site) is permitted "as-of-right". Belmont is considered a Commuter Rail Community and according to the 2020 Census, the town currently has 10,882 housing units. This means that to comply with Section 3A, Belmont must establish one (or more) as-of-right zoning districts that total at least 28 acres and have a zoned capacity for 1,632 units. 

The Committee is composed of the members listed below and typically now meets 2-4 times a month. The Committee values your opinions and input. Please consider attending meetings of the Committee which usually begin at 5:30 pm and run an hour or more. This is a working Committee and while public input is part of every meeting, it is often short and at the end. Belmont is planning for more intensive public participation prior to finalizing a set of maps and zoning districts. One such meeting will be a public workshop where displays will be situated around a large gathering space, allowing the public to circulate and see close-ups of proposed areas. The workshop may also have a brief presentation and a Q&A. The Committee may also plan for multiple "neighborhood" meetings to allow for a more intimate discussion of specific areas that have been proposed. Again, we hope you can make one or more of these meetings. But regardless, we welcome hearing from you via email, snail mail, telephone, or in person.

Committee Members

Member Name Affiliation Term 
Patrick MurphyBoard of Assessors06/30/2024
Thayer DonhamPlanning Board, Clerk06/30/2023
Rachel Heller Housing Trust, co-Chair06/30/2023
Paul Joy Economic Development Committee06/30/2023
Drew NealonHistoric District Commission 06/30/2023
Roy EpsteinSelect Board, co-Chair06/30/2023
Julie WuDiversity, Equity and Inclusion Implementation Committee06/30/2023

 

Staff Contacts

Name Title Phone
Christopher Ryan Director of Planning & Building (617) 993-2650