January 6, 2025

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Dear Fellow Needhamites,

 

I write to reaffirm my support for voting YES in the upcoming housing referendum and offer some additional detail about my position.

 

The Housing Plan deserves our YES votes on or before Tuesday, January 14, because it provides reasonable, thoughtful, carefully crafted, and narrowly tailored solutions to a number of Needham’s challenges. Simultaneously, it avoids a number of unnecessary risks.

 

First, we have a housing stock problem. This is readily recognizable in both data and lived experience. Older neighbors who want to downsize and stay in our community do not have options to do so. Younger families wanting to move into (or back to) town have no reasonably priced options. Our teachers, nurses, police officers, and firefighters who work here and provide our community with such important services largely cannot afford to live here. The Housing Plan addresses the housing stock issue by zoning for a wider variety of housing options.

 

Second, we have a downtown vibrancy problem. Businesses need increased foot traffic and new clientele to drive revenues, particularly along Chestnut Street between Needham Junction and the Town Common, and stretching up Highland Ave to Needham Heights. The Housing Plan addresses the downtown vibrancy issue by situating the new zoning directly along this commercial corridor, without impacting any of our single family residential areas. Don’t take my word for it; hear from our local business owners including Jay Spencer (French Press), Steve Volante (Volante Farms), and Hedy Jarras (Sweet Tomatoes) about why they also support a YES vote on or before January 14.

 

Likewise, every single member of our School Committee has endorsed a YES vote. Voters have asked whether the schools can absorb the potential influx of new students. That’s a reasonable question, and as a parent of two at Eliot, it’s one that I shared. This question has been asked and answered resoundingly in the affirmative: the schools can accommodate the Housing Plan’s anticipated growth. The latest school census data indicates that every anticipated student in every bit of potential new build will be accommodated within the Schools Master Plan. That, of course, is an unlikely outcome, since maximum capacity build is unlikely. The more realistic outcome is that a good portion of the Housing Plan’s potential build comes to fruition, and the anticipated new students in that scenario can be accommodated even into our existing schools, without any new school construction.

 

Our schools are among the best in the Commonwealth and to continue that impressive record, new school building plans are already in the works, along with other local infrastructure projects. Whatever it is you want to see improved or enhanced in this town, it’s going to cost money. This is one of the strangest realities I’ve encountered in my public service: everyone wants more and better services, but no one wants to pay more in taxes. Same, friends, but there’s no getting around the fact that state and local governments must balance our budgets. We can’t run at a deficit the way the federal government can. The Housing Plan provides a broader local revenue base to help pay for the services and supports we expect from Needham, without raising taxes on residents or businesses.

 

There are many more positive reasons to support the Housing Plan, including the significant time, talent, energy, and expertise that went into crafting it, as well as numerous rounds of community feedback and incorporation of that feedback in the Plan’s refinement, a years-long endeavor prior to the Town Meeting vote back in October.

 

As your State Senator, with the vote mere days away, I would be remiss to only talk about the carrots without at least mentioning the sticks, because the sticks are part of the reality. The reason we have to do this now is because of a law that Needham High School graduate and then-Governor Charlie Baker proposed and pushed through the Legislature. Needham is currently out of compliance with the Charlie Baker Housing Law, and if we don’t vote YES by 8pm on January 14, we will remain out of compliance for an unknown and potentially lengthy amount of time.

 

What happens to state and federal funding for Needham if we remain out of compliance with the Charlie Baker Housing Law? We stand to lose tens of millions of state and federal dollars. A minimum of $85 million in state funding would be gone, right off the bat, and that’s not even touching other potential grants and allocations that might have been available to the town but won’t be due to non-compliance. Further, Congressman Auchincloss has made clear that he will not secure any new earmarks for communities that do not comply with the Charlie Baker Housing Law zoning requirements. Some may wish to falsely accuse me of fear-mongering for stating these facts, but false accusations will not change the reality that these consequences are the facts of the moment.

 

Similarly, I’ve heard a somewhat misleading narrative that if this referendum fails, we could quickly pass a new plan. Lived experience belies the claim. Much of this process would have to start all over again. The Planning Board would need to put forth another proposal, and it takes time to develop a plan that offers comparable local revenue, business district vitality, housing options variety, and alignment with other goals, both locally and with the Charlie Baker Housing Law. A Special Town Meeting would need to be called, with sufficient notice, and then Town Meeting would have to vote to approve whatever the new proposal might be. Keep in mind that such a vote in the affirmative should not be taken for granted. All of that means that our town could remain out of compliance with the Charlie Baker Housing Law for months if not years.

 

The Housing Plan is the plan before us. You may have wanted a tweak here or additional provision there, but in consensus governing, no one ever gets everything they want. Let’s also be clear about the fact that the Neighborhood Housing Plan actually rezones fewer acres than the Base Plan, and only allows another potential 4 units total per acre. (Thanks to the Needham Observer for setting out these and other facts here, here, and here.)

 

The Housing Plan is the plan that Town Meeting approved. We get an up or down, yes or no vote. Please join me in voting YES for Needham on or before January 14. 

 

Your neighbor,

Becca