SPECIAL EDITION! Tenants of Needham Public Housing Urged to Vote YES for Housing Plan

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- NEEDHAM, MA -  A Referendum Vote for Tuesday January 14, 2024, has been called by a petition of citizens asking for a public rejection (NO) of the recent 2024 Town Meeting position that selected a Neighborhood Housing Plan (YES) over a minimally compliant Base Plan, which also passed at Town Meeting, but was not favored, to meet the MBTA requirements.

Senator Becca Rausch provided a letter in support of voting YES.

Needham needs housing, especially multi-unit apartment buildings plus, in my opinion, other forms of community living arrangements, if not new forms of management and ownership, although that's not yet part of the discussion.    The current and permanent trend of tearing down  pre-millennial  homes and building up new McMansions is not adding housing stock to Needham.  The Town, overall, and particularly the retail centers need a recognized zone, along the bus and rail transit lines where development and innovation by right is encouraged.

The real estate market is slowing down.  The Town demographer reported that persons age 75+ in single family dwellings are not selling, nor down sizing, because there's nothing to buy.  A YES vote would create more housing for downsizers, who want to stay in Needham especially in convenient and multi-modal transportation friendly areas. 

A NO vote would limit and squelch the development options in the District that has become the natural hometown, small town storefront and retail business spine running from Needham Heights through the Center to Lower Chestnut Street and the Junction.  

For the residents of public housing, a NO vote would put additional pressure on the Housing Authority to proceed with their own crazy 10-15 year, tear-down, double-density redevelopment plan for a four story brick penitentiary-style Federal housing project squeezed into the High Rock School District neighborhood, which is zoned for single family Capes and ranches with vernal pools and a wetlands, too.  

One potential benefit of a YES vote is that this zoning could encourage either new private development where its welcome, and/or more public-private enterprises, developed through the existing Affordable Housing Trust Fund, a new Community Development Corporation, or an innovative project of the Housing Authority.

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