After a prolonged period of discord, it is time for our City Councilors to collaborate and compromise on a zoning solution.
The “ouster” [Fig City News] of 3 long-serving Councilors – most notably, the 7-term Chair of the Zoning and Planning Committee (ZAP) – and the election of 5 of the newcomers, drives the message home: This election was a referendum on ZAP’s upzoning proposals.
It would be wrong – and undemocratic – for the Lame Duck session of the City Council to pass ZAP’s full upzoning proposals, given the sentiments of the electorate.
The looming threat of an expensive and contentious referendum is real – organizing activities are already under way. The prospect of more organized opposition to incumbents in future elections is also real – and underscores how roiled the community has become. Now is not the time to exacerbate the discontent.
Councilors must work together to limit this phase of the upzoning to complying with the 8,330-unit (25% growth) requirement of the MBTA Communities Act. Leave it to the newly elected City Council to chart the course forward on any additional upzoning.
Councilors need to heed the voters’ unambiguous message and restore civility to the public discourse.
It is time to let the healing begin and to bring our Garden City back together.
Respectfully submitted,
Anne Goldbach, Newtonville
Carolyn Jacoby Gabbay, Newtonville
