By Ethan Forman | Staff Writer | Gloucester Daily Times
 Dec 4, 2024 Updated Dec 5, 2024

Come New Year’s Day, Gloucester will be out of compliance with MBTA Communities Act guidelines, making it ineligible for millions in state grants, some of which the city was set to receive, until a vote can be held on its new multifamily overlay zoning rules.

A grassroots petition drive led by former Ward 2 Councilor Tracy O’Neil demanding a referendum on the zoning successfully gathered enough signatures per the requirements of the City Charter (10% of voters) to suspend the zoning rules until residents can vote on them. If residents vote down the zoning ordinance changes, the city would remain out of compliance.

A date for the vote, either at a special election or at the November municipal election, is to be determined, Council President Tony Gross said.

Gloucester, as a commuter rail community, has until Dec. 31 to come into compliance with the law to create multifamily zoning within a half mile of its two commuter rail stops or face the loss of certain state grant opportunities. The city has been in interim compliance.

After a months-long process, on Oct. 1, the City Council passed by a 7-0 vote (with two recusals) a Multi-Family Overlay District and ancillary zoning amendments to comply with the law that’s also known as Section 3A.

The petition drive met a 21-day deadline after the council’s vote to gather 4,200 signatures to force an immediate suspension of the zoning while calling for the City Council to reconsider and rescind the measure.

During Tuesday’s meeting in City Hall’s Kyrouz Auditorium, the council voted 6-0, with three councilors absent, to reconsider its Oct. 1 vote. Shortly thereafter, the six councilors voted against rescinding the zoning, sending the measure to the ballot box.

Lost money

Mayor Greg Verga weighed in Wednesday afternoon about the consequences of the city being out of compliance with 3A as of Jan. 1.

“We have already been informed that two grants,” he said, “totaling around $1 million, and a reduced interest rate on the nearly $206 million loan for the required wastewater treatment plant upgrades will no longer be available due to our noncompliance.

“This means critical infrastructure upgrades to the Gloucester Avenue neighborhood will not happen, and required improvements to our wastewater treatment plant will be affected.”

General Counsel Suzanne Egan told councilors Tuesday the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities “informed us in anticipation of this meeting tonight, that they will treat us as though we are out of compliance as of Jan. 1 and pull back all state grants that we would otherwise have been eligible for by virtue of adopting this ordinance.”

“The issue of noncompliance is pretty bad right now,” Councilor at-Large Jason Grow said, noting that 100 out of 177 MBTA communities have voted to be in compliance, making Gloucester an outlier.

“And while some people may celebrate that outlier status, what it’s doing is it’s literally costing us hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars from Day 1,” he said.

Grow said being out of compliance with 3A means:

The loss of a $400,000 grant for Gloucester Avenue infrastructure repairs.

The loss of a $500,000 grant for secondary wastewater treatment plant upgrades.

The risk of losing nearly $1 million in payments for the Sawyer Free Library project, a total $8 million over the next five years.

The potential loss of the city’s Housing Choice Community designation giving a preferential borrowing rate on the loan for the $206 million secondary wastewater treatment plant upgrade which could mean millions in additional borrowing costs.

A reduction in funding for the Gloucester Housing Authority.

Petition representation

With O’Neil sitting in the auditorium, some councilors unloaded on what some saw as misrepresentation on what residents were signing.

“People did not know what they were signing,” Grow said. “That’s the truth. And, the fact of the matter is if they realized how much harm they were doing to the community, they never would have signed it.”

Ward 2 Councilor Dylan Benson, who represents much of the downtown where a majority of the overlay zoning focused on three-family buildings by right was placed, lauded the solution the Planning Board had come up with.

Benson spoke to many people in his ward and elsewhere who did not fully understand what they were signing when it came to the petition to overturn the council vote, “including my own father,” he said.

“They told me that if they had known the full details, they wouldn’t have signed the petition. This feedback is important and we should consider that as we move forward.”

“My impression is many people who signed this petition didn’t fully understand the impact, and the financial impact of what they were doing,” Ward 1 Councilor Scott Memhard said.

“There was no misrepresentation,” O’Neil said after the meeting. “That’s false … We never misrepresented ourselves. You signed a petition that said ‘I want a chance to vote on 3A,’ that’s all it was.”

Councilor at-Large Jeff Worthley and Ward 3 Councilor Marjorie Grace had both recused themselves from the initial vote on Oct. 1 because of the possible conflict of owning homes downtown where the zoning was being proposed. Council Vice President and Ward 5 Councilor Sean Nolan was not present during Tuesday’s meeting.

ARTICLE PUBLISHED HERE