Committee of the whole approves Kathy McMenimen’s ZBA appointment amid backlash from residents

City councilors unanimously approved former at-large council member Kathy McMenimen’s appointment to Waltham’s Zoning Board of Appeals at Monday’s City Council Committee of the Whole meeting. The vote will be ratified at the council’s meeting next week.

Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy requested the committee approve McMenimen’s appointment as an associate member of the ZBA, a move that has since sparked backlash from residents.

McMenimen will join three current associate members on the board that are called to sit if a permanent member is absent or has a conflict of interest in a matter before the ZBA.

In an interview with The Waltham Times McMenimen said she is familiar with the ZBA. While she said she didn’t work directly with the board during her time as a city councilor, she is looking forward to both participating and learning in her new role.

“The first thing I’m going to do is learn all about what I’m going to need to know,” McMenimen said, “I love to learn; I’m an educator by profession.” 

During the committee’s meeting, McMenimen told members that while she hasn’t served on the board before, she’s attended numerous ZBA meetings in the past. 

One issue McMenimen mentioned was the use of 40B petitions in place of 40A special permits. A 40B is a state statute exempting developers from local zoning bylaws when building affordable housing if a municipality is under a 10% affordable housing threshold.

“They are, for all intents and purposes, basically allowed to do what they want to do in order to develop what they want to develop. Anyone who’s been to the ZBA and watched a 40B in process understands how that process works,” she said.

Residents have taken to Reddit to express their concerns about the appointment. 

“It seems pretty undemocratic to appoint somebody who just lost an election to a city board,” a user wrote. “Kathleen McMenimen is against development, a position she made clear at debates.”

McMenimen told The Waltham Times she had no response to anonymous users and platforms.

“I’m always looking for objectivity and I’m not finding it on the anonymous sites,” she said.

After holding a council seat for 50 years, McMenimen’s reelection bid was unsuccessful in last year’s municipal election, which viewers of last week’s virtual council meeting commented on expressing concern during the YouTube livestream.

Waltham resident Jack Holder was one of the commenters. Holder said he voted against McMenimen in an attempt to bring change to local government, specifically citing the former councilor’s opposition to new housing.

“To then have our mayor decide that she knows better and appoint McMenimen to the zoning board feels like a smack in the face, like our election didn’t matter in her eyes,” Holder told The Waltham Times.