City Council takes up resolution on zoning variances

Resolution says some variances ‘arguably result in substantial detriment to the public good’

By AUBREY HAWKE
Waltham Times Contributing Writer

The City Council last week took up a resolution questioning whether zoning variances have gone too far and calling for more study of the issue.

The resolution, put forward by five city councilors for discussion at the Sept. 23 City Council meeting, stated that recent variances granted by the Zoning Board of Appeals may not have met necessary legal requirements and resulted in “substantial detriment to the public good.”

Ward 9 Councilor Robert G. Logan, one of the five councilors who submitted the resolution, spoke in favor of it at the meeting. He said zoning variances are only allowed under particular circumstances and even when those circumstances are present, there are limits on what variances can allow.

Logan cited state law that gives city councils the authority to enable zoning regulations, noting that the same law created zoning appeal boards as well as gave them authority to hear appeals and grant variances.

Logan said the law allows variances “only under very, very narrow conditions [and] without nullifying or substantially derogating from the intent of the zoning limits.”

Logan said the ZBA has granted variances that seem to surpass those limits. 

Ward 8 Councilor Cathyann Harris, another of the five councilors who signed the resolution, also spoke in support of the resolution at the meeting.

“There are some very recent ZBA decisions that have directly impacted my ward and changed the topography of the neighborhood,” she said.

Harris cited as an example a new development at the corner of Newton and High streets, which she said neighbors spoke against at a ZBA meeting. She said the development’s density “completely impacted the privacy of a single-family neighborhood.”

Harris said it is important that existing zoning rules are respected.

“We are a commonwealth of rules and regulations, and zoning is a very important part of how we manage development in our city, and it does need to be managed,” she said. “When you can go into a board, bypass the council and this whole elected process, go get six variances and build something three times the size that should be there by right because you claimed a hardship. What about the hardship of the neighbors whose privacy now is impacted?”

She continued: “We are duly elected, [the ZBA members are] duly appointed, and they’re supposed to be watching the hardships of zoning, not completely overriding the zoning that’s in that area. This is a big deal to the South Side.”

Harris went on to say that “we need to recalibrate and understand where the lines are, so we can work together, not have a situation where they’re making unilateral decisions. They’re completely blowing up the base zoning of that area.”

Council President John J. McLaughlin referred the ZBA resolution to the city’s Ordinances and Rules Committee. 

Ward 6 Councilor Sean T. Durkee, Ward 3 Councilor William Hanley and Ward 7 Councilor Paul S. Katz also signed the resolution.

Logan in a follow-up interview with The Waltham Times said “if the ZBA or anyone is looking at the zoning and thinks that the zoning is overly restrictive or unreasonable, the remedy is legislation, not going around the zoning for a variance.”

Here is the text of the resolution. The full discussion of the ZBA resolution can be viewed on WCAC starting at 23:00.

In other action, the City Council 

• Brought forward a resolution to address the town’s backlog of unpaved roads. “Every year there is less and less money available from the state and federal government to do our roadways, so we are going to have to come up with more money on our end,” Logan said at the meeting. 

• Continued action on a petition to build a six-story hotel off Main Street submitted by 1265 Main Street LLC and J&Co until Nov. 12. 

The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 7:30 p.m., in the Council Chamber at Waltham City Hall. City Council meetings are open to the public.