Medford Square officially rezoned

It only took roughly 14 months, 16 public hearings, 4 joint City Council/Community Development Board meetings, 3 public informational sessions and 99 verbal and written comments for the Medford Square rezoning effort to finally be approved.

“These weren’t always easy conversations, but they were thoughtful ones, and I think this proposal is stronger because of that engagement,” said City Councilor Justin Tseng.

Tseng said anyone strolling by Mrs. Murphy’s, Deep Cuts or El Tacuba could feel that Medford Square had potential, but it just wasn’t quite there yet. 

The City Council is hoping the new zoning clears the path for new changes in the area. 

The basic changes

The rezoned footprint runs from Winthrop Street to High Street. It includes St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, the public library and CVS, crosses Governor Avenue, to Bradlee Road, encompasses the Chevalier Theatre on Forest Street, crosses Ashland and Oakland streets, hooking a right at Salem Street, dropping to Main Street and back up to Winthrop Street.

The footprint also includes Clippership Drive, the City Hall mall and Riverside Avenue.

But as Alicia Hunt, director of Planning, Development, and Sustainability, pointed out, all of the residential areas were excluded from the footprint. 

“Pure residential areas were removed from the map, as well as a couple other little pieces that were truly residential areas that would never be really mixed use,” she said.

Various sections of the area, as delineated on the map, allow for four-story buildings plus one with incentive zoning.

Hunt said incentive zoning allows the developer to do things that would be beneficial to the community in order to get another floor on their building. There are areas that include five stories by right, which means a builder needs no special permit or permission and a possible two additional floors with incentive zoning, seven stories plus two with incentive zoning and eight stories plus a possible five more floors with incentive zoning. 

Hunt said the eight stories plus five, reflects buildings already in that particular area, beyond Clippership Drive and around the Senior Center, that are already 12 stories tall. 

“So this would make them conforming buildings,” at least in terms of height, she said. 

Hunt said they’ve also worked out incentives and waivers aimed at preserving historically significant buildings. Buildings across the street from new builds must also have a minimum amount of daylight, which will require shadow studies to be undertaken by the builders. 

One other new process came out of all the meetings, Hunt said. For the first time, the City Council and CDB tag-teamed public hearings, giving residents the ability to ask questions of both groups at the same time, which also served to keep the two boards on the same page. 

Thoughts

“I think one thing we just need to be aware of is we’re putting this into place, and then we’re going to see if it works,” said City Council President Zac Bears. “And if we don’t see the kind of growth and change that we want to see or if there are pieces of it that need to be adjusted, then we need to continue to iterate and update and improve our zoning.”

Bears said he hoped this effort to build a new future for Medford Square would be the start of a continued commitment to regularly revisit zoning to make sure it’s working as intended. 

Tseng said he didn’t want to see the zoning changes viewed as new housing versus neighborhood character or growth versus preservation, but that doing nothing was not an option. He called the new ordinance very intentionally designed. 

“We can welcome growth and we can protect what people love about this place,” he said. “We don’t have to choose between one or the other. We can choose good planning and good governance instead.”

Councilor Matt Leming said he was simply glad to be at the finish line for this particular piece of zoning. 

Because the city’s not done yet.

Next up

The City Council and CDB will hold a joint meeting on the Boston Avenue zoning project, the next area up for rezoning, on Wednesday, May 13 at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers in City Hall.

The meeting will also be available on Zoom with a link available at https://www.medfordma.org/  click on Events Calendar. 

Also approved

Prior to the Medford Square rezoning approval, the City Council voted to approve an overlay project allowing Transom Real Estate to redevelop city-owned parking lots in Medford Square.

The project will include replacing existing lots with a parking garage, mixed-use buildings or buildings that have both retail and residential components, an urban grocery store and public art.

Peter Spellios, of Transom, said they would do the work in phases, but hoped to get things moving as soon as possible. 

“This is going to be a project that’s going to be very positive for the Square,” said Tseng. “It’s the type of catalyst that residents have been asking for, and I’m excited to see this coming to fruition.”