Milton has began to lose some state funding after residents overturned a state-mandated zoning plan, an motion executed by the Healey administration that the chair of the Select Board is looking “unconscionable.”
Chairman Michael Zullas, talking for himself, not the board, informed the Herald he believes the city “should fight” again towards Gov. Maura Healey’s administration to retrieve present funding reductions and forestall future withholdings.
“I find this action by the Healey-Driscoll Administration to be precipitous, punitive, wholly unnecessary, and contrary to their stated goal of working constructively with municipalities,” Zullas stated in a textual content message. “As Chair of the Select Board, I will do everything I can to fight this and any future grant withholding. It is unconscionable to me that the state would harm our town by withholding funding.”
Zullas’ feedback got here hours after state Housing Secretary Ed August knowledgeable Town Administrator Nicholas Milano that Milton is not eligible for a $140,800 grant award it acquired late final month for seawall and entry enhancements at Milton Landing.
In addition, the city received’t be eligible to obtain MassWorks and HousingWorks grants, applications targeted on supporting and accelerating housing manufacturing. Milton will even be at a “competitive disadvantage for the 13 discretionary grant programs offered by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities,” Augustus wrote.
“Milton’s current non-compliant status means the town will begin losing out on significant grant funding from the state, effective immediately,” Augustus wrote to Milano in a letter launched to reporters on Wednesday.
This all comes after residents voted final week to not adjust to the MBTA Communities Act, which requires 177 cities and cities throughout Greater Boston to permit a minimum of one zoning district “of reasonable size,” by which multi-family housing is permitted “as of right,” usually half a mile close to a transit station.
Milton is the one municipality to not comply.
Augustus and Attorney General Andrea Campbell outlined in separate letters to city officers final month how Milton’s eligibility for a “wide variety of state funding” can be impacted if voters rejected compliance with the state legislation which might additionally set off authorized repercussions.
Milano additionally warned the Select Board what was at stake forward of final week’s referendum by which 54% of the roughly 9,500 ballots solid have been towards compliance. He highlighted how the city over the previous a number of years has secured “$1.7 million in grant funding that comes through discretionary and competitive grant programs funding projects such as safer streets, school improvements, and a new website.”
Zullas informed the Herald he believes the city “should explore all options” in the way it might combat again towards the state.
“It is time for us to come together as a town to find a workable solution to the MBTA Communities Act,” he stated, “and the state’s actions at this time solely serve to sow additional division. It is towards the spirit of collaboration that the state has pledged. It would possibly even be towards the legislation.
Residents initially accredited a plan at Town Meeting in December after a protracted sequence of public hearings and debate between group members.
That plan would have paved the way in which for development of greater than 2,400 housing models throughout a handful of neighborhoods on the town. But a gaggle dubbed ‘Milton Neighbors for Responsible Zoning’ garnered 3,000 signatures on a petition requesting the zoning article be introduced in entrance of voters as a poll query, prompting final week’s vote.
It additionally “would have been in interim compliance with the law,” Augustus wrote in his letter Wednesday. Healey’s administration supplied $80,000 price of group planning grants for technical help to assist the city adjust to the zoning bylaw, he added.
The state Legislature handed the MBTA Communities Act in January 2021, with the Senate adopting the legislation unanimously and the House favoring it with 143-4 approval. Then Gov. Charlie Baker subsequently signed the act into legislation.
“The law is clear – compliance with the MBTA Communities Law is mandatory,” Augustus wrote. “If we do not all come together to build more housing, we will not be able to overcome our affordability crisis. We need every community to do their part.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”