The week ahead: Mayor proposes new Fernald residence under controversial state housing override law

Months after the city declared it is no longer obligated to consider new applications for housing construction under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40B, Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy is proposing a new development using the same legislation.

Chapter 40B allows developers to bypass some of the standard permit process if they’re constructing affordable housing, including building in non-residential areas, and in practice requires cities to prove a housing development creates significant harm in order to reject it. 

Waltham’s Zoning Board of Appeals this month rejected another project applying for a Chapter 40B special permit on Totten Pond Road. This and other recently rejected projects would create large housing developments in a commercial area in the west of Waltham, where the board has argued there isn’t sufficient infrastructure to support that volume of housing.

By contrast, McCarthy is proposing a much smaller project, located at Cardinal Cottage, one of the buildings on the site of the former Fernald State School. The city has already funded renovations to the exterior of the building, and it plans to build two city-owned residential units with funding from the Municipal Affordable Trust Fund.

McCarthy will visit the ZBA this Tuesday evening to seek a comprehensive permit for the building’s construction.

Below is a chronological rundown of other city meetings scheduled this week.

Council on Aging

The Board of Trustees for the city’s Council on Aging, which organizes services for older Waltham residents and advocates for legislation that includes and protects them, is slated to meet this week. 

It will meet in the conference room of the William F. Stanley Senior Center at 10 a.m. on Monday, April 27.

City Council

This week, Councilor-at-Large Colleen Bradley-MacArthur has proposed that a representative from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council present data to city councilors on parking and traffic needs in Greater Boston to inform the city’s ongoing zoning review.

The City Council will also receive some license renewal applications, including for three community farms, and a series of requests from McCarthy, most of which will be acted upon at next week’s committee meetings. 

McCarthy has requested another appropriation of approximately $1.3 million for the Department of Public Works to cover the cost of this year’s storms. She has also requested the council accept a series of donations to the city, including historical memorabilia and a book by a Waltham author for the Museum Room at City Hall.

The council will meet on Monday at 7:30 p.m.

Zoning Board of Appeals

The ZBA is a five-person board charged with reviewing new and existing buildings that might violate the city’s zoning code. 

The board has the power to grant project-specific variances to the code, overrule judgments made by the building inspector and grant specific types of special permits, including the comprehensive residential permits outlined by the state’s Chapter 40B statute.

This week, on top of the Cardinal Cottage Chapter 40B application, it will also hear two additional cases: an update to a 2022 special permit to clarify previous plans and construct new roof deck extensions for a Bacon Street property, and a petition to allow a lot owner to construct a two-family home on a lot that doesn’t border any street.

The board will meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28 at the Arthur Clark Government Center.

Watch Factory Lofts neighborhood meeting

The owners of the Waltham Watch Factory Lofts apartments are holding a neighborhood meeting this week to discuss a recent proposal to expand the apartment complex. 

The company has proposed building 140 residential units in a new building, replacing one of the property’s little-used parking lots. The project, proposed at a recent ZBA meeting, received both support and criticism from neighbors, some of whom were concerned about the project’s impact on traffic and affordability.

The meeting will be open to “neighbors, abutters and interested members of the community,” according to the meeting announcement. It will take place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Apr. 29, at the Waltham Community and Cultural Center at 510 Moody St.