Dec 20, 2024
 

To the editor:

I must respectfully disagree with Tracy O’Neil’s letter to the editor “Thank you, petition signers” (Gloucester Daily Times, Dec. 18), thanking signers of her referendum petition in opposition to the MBTA Communities Act.

While the right to vote is crucial in local governance, the petition’s approval has serious consequences for Gloucester. It undermined the city’s carefully developed zoning plan — the Multi-family Overlay District — which was unanimously passed by the Planning Board and City Council to ensure compliance with state law. We, as a community, now stand to lose $900,000 in recently awarded infrastructure improvement grants, face potential reductions in Housing Authority funding impacting seniors and low-income families, risk losing funding for the Sawyer Free Library ongoing expansion project, and critical preferential financing for the secondary water treatment plant, potentially costing Gloucester taxpayers millions. In retrospect, do petition signers really believe this was the “right thing” for Gloucester?

Ms. O’Neil stated that “Soon we will be asked to vote on the MBTA Multifamily Zoning Act (MGL Chapter 4A, Subsection 3A).” What she neglects to make clear, however, is that the special election she has forced on the city will be a vote for citizens to either accept or reject Gloucester’s zoning plan — the Multi-family Overlay District plan. It WILL NOT be a vote for the city to opt out of the law itself.

Non-compliance and opting out of state law is not an option left up to voters.

Deanna Fay,

Gloucester

LTE PUBLISHED HERE