
Vote on MBTA Zoning Set for May Town Meeting
January 22, 2025
• Town Meeting will vote on the Base Compliance Plan in May, not in February as previously discussed.
One word dominated the Select Board’s Tuesday meeting: angst.
After several residents urged the board to schedule a Special Town Meeting on the MBTA Communities Law zoning, the board voted, instead, to incorporate the zoning on the Annual Town Meeting warrant in May.
The decision followed a discussion that drew a distinct line between the majority of the board and member Josh Levy, who stressed the need to ease town tensions with an immediate vote.
Pushing the vote to May, Levy said, is a matter of “convenience.” While Chair Kevin Keane said the zoning “basically sits in the oven warming until we take it out,” Levy said he feels there will be “angst that just keeps boiling.”
“The past three months have been very divisive for our town,” Levy said, reading from a statement. “Relationships among neighbors have been strained, and the representation promised by our representative government has been called into question.”
After a citizens’ petition triggered a referendum, the town tentatively considered Feb. 24 for a Special Town Meeting, should the electorate overturn the Neighborhood Housing Plan passed at October’s Town Meeting. Voters did just that, but a new issuance from the state has granted non-compliant communities an extended deadline — July 14 — with which to submit a compliant zoning plan.
That gives Needham breathing room to pass a new plan, since they won’t be rushing to comply. By submitting an action plan, due Feb. 13, the town will reach interim compliance and thereby not potentially lose out on grant funding, Deputy Town Manager Katie King said. Needham still would need to comply with the July deadline to be deemed compliant, King added.
Voters in the Jan. 14 vote decisively opposed the Neighborhood Housing Plan by an 18% margin — a larger margin, Levy reminded attendees, than the NHP gained at Town Meeting. Levy suggested the board, in addition to supporting the Base Plan, also hold a post-mortem to evaluate how “to prevent similar controversies from boiling over in the future.”
Vice Chair Heidi Frail, who co-chaired the HONE Committee that crafted the two plans, said that process, Town Meeting and all that occurred afterward is democracy in action. Frail previously advocated for the NHP.
“Didn’t turn out in my favor, I’m not happy with the result, but I accept it, so that’s the point,” Frail said. “That’s the process working.”
She and the other board members signaled their support for the Base Plan, as well as including it on the May Town Meeting warrant.

The referendum caused angst, Levy said, which would be subdued with an earlier vote in February. Levy said the town could also address potential amendments to the plan at a Special Town Meeting but feels they would not have time to do so in May. His colleagues, particularly Keane and Cathy Dowd, stressed they would not support any amendments to the Base Plan. Town Manager Kate Fitzpatrick said town boards are committed to the Base Plan.
Still, a February meeting was something voters expected to take place, Levy argued.
“That’s what we advertised,” he said. “And I understand the facts have changed, that the [Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities] has extended our deadline, but that’s what people expected.”
The reason for holding a Special Town Meeting was to regain compliance, which is now nullified, Frail said. There is no plan to deviate from the Base Plan, she said.
Division emerged as a central theme during public comment, when some residents urged the board to hold a meeting on the zoning as soon as allowable.
Nathan Levin, a member of the Needham Residents for Thoughtful Zoning — the group that organized the citizens’ petition and supports the Base Plan — told board members to listen to the voters and schedule the meeting for Feb. 24.
“To do otherwise would go against the mandate of close to 7,000 voters,” Levin said, “and any delay would risk exacerbating the divisiveness that is already negatively impacted our beloved town.”
Putting the Base Plan forward for Feb. 24 would “go a long way in healing the division in our town and repairing the distrust that so many unfortunately have in our elected officials,” resident Zachary Wallack said.
NRTZ member Gary Ajamian said it’s important to “put that vitriol behind us.” He also questioned why some board members joined Yes for Needham, the advocacy group in favor of the NHP, of which Frail was a part.
Commenting on the overall town process, Frail indirectly addressed some of those comments.
“I hear that there’s distrust,” she said. “I’m not sure I understand why, given that the system, it seems to me, has worked exactly the way it was supposed to.”
Fitzpatrick also defended the recommendation to place the issue on the May warrant.
“It’s our practice to move these kinds of things into the regular order of things,” Fitzpatrick said. “Town Meeting is meeting in May, so that’s our recommendation to the board.”
The Select Board unanimously voted to submit the Base Plan to the state as part of its action plan, with the plan to vote on the zoning at the May Town Meeting.
Later that evening, the Planning Board voted to send the Base Plan to the Select Board, to little fanfare. Planning Board Chair Natasha Espada, who co-chaired HONE with Frail, acknowledged that “this whole negative effect on the town bothers me.” After a lengthy process, messaging and the special election, Espada said she stands by their work and hopes to reach a consensus.
Member Artie Crocker said he’d hope to hold a Special Town Meeting to “get it off everyone’s plate.” “I’d like to not worry about this anymore,” Crocker said.
Member Paul Alpert argued that doing so would be costly, and it would be more difficult to gather people there. (Select Board member Marianne Cooley made a similar comment on attendance.)
Some Planning Board members took issue with the Select Board, who they feel is instructing them to put the Base Plan forward.
The town officials also expressed dismay at the lack of community engagement during the hearing process on the two plans. At the Select Board meeting, Keane said that, through the petition, he learned people weren’t aware of what was happening and felt it to be too rushed. Their desire for “an emergency Town Meeting,” in his mind, appears antithetical to their slow and steady approach.
The Base Plan will address some of the town’s housing concerns and overall be a “win for the state,” Keane said.
“Government should be responsible, considered and measured,” Keane said, “and I think we will do that.”