The Zoning Advisory Committee agreed at its meeting on Monday to continue a conversation on a potential change to the town’s current MBTA Communities Act zoning.
The change would address feedback on Hopkinton’s MBTA Communities zoning bylaw, which was approved by Special Town Meeting in 2024. The statute requires cities and towns in the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority’s service area to approve new zoning to permit as-of-right multifamily housing near public transportation. Hopkinton is considered an MBTA-adjacent community.
According to the town’s principal planner, Aneri Patel, the state gave Hopkinton a partial compliance approval after reviewing the bylaw. “We have until May 2026 to come up with the new option and adopted bylaw,” she said.
In order to be in full compliance, the town has to meet certain requirements. The zoning districts must accommodate 750 units at a density of 15 units per acre on 50 or more acres of developable land. Hopkinton created three districts to fulfill the requirements: Walcott Valley, The Preserve and a section of downtown.
The three districts provide room for 782 units on 54.6 acres of land at a density of 18 units per acre, exceeding the state’s mandates.
However, the law also holds a 50% contiguous area requirement, meaning at least one of Hopkinton’s districts must be 27.3 acres. Walcott Valley, The Preserve and the downtown district sit around 15, 23 and 17 acres respectively.
Available options to meet the requirement include expanding The Preserve or downtown districts. Expanding The Preserve would require 5 acres, while downtown would require at least 10. The ZAC also was informed by Patel it had the option to develop a fourth district.
In a follow-up email with the Independent, Patel stated that any recommendation the ZAC makes for changing the MBTA zoning will be forwarded to the Planning Board for review and refinement. From there, it “becomes part of a formal zoning bylaw amendment process, which ultimately requires a vote at Town Meeting for adoption,” she explained.
ZAC chair Ted Barker-Hook noted that adding to any district would change the total acreage, making it a difficult task to meet the contiguous area requirement.
“If we add acres to any of the zones, we’re adding to the total acreage, which means 50% is bigger than 27.3,” he explained.
Member Matthew Wronka laid out two ways forward. The first option involved adding the Carbone’s Restaurant property on Cedar Street to The Preserve district, which would raise that area to just under 40 acres.
Barker-Hook suggested the ZAC avoid that solution based on prior attempts at including it in the MBTA zoning. An early plan that included Carbone’s was voted down at Town Meeting in May 2024.
“It’s a can of worms I’m not ready to open up again,” he said. “It’s been shot down twice, and I don’t think we ought to bring it up again.”
Wronka’s second suggestion was to link the Walcott Valley and downtown districts. “There’s about a block and a half more or less along [Route] 85 that connects them,” he noted.
Members discussed the merits of finding a link between the two districts. Joining them would create a single district of about 32 acres, going beyond the 50% requirement. Barker-Hook also seemed hopeful the idea would keep residents’ properties secure while meeting the mandates of the law.
“If you connected [Walcott Valley and downtown] by just a couple of properties, I don’t think that would lend itself to rapid development,” he said. “But it does make one contiguous lot … which would then satisfy our need.”
Barker-Hook suggested the matter be continued until the next ZAC meeting on Dec. 8. The committee is anticipated to wrap up its discussion and make a recommendation then, once members have had more time to review the current zoning.
This again shows the total lack of empathy, understanding and regard for the residents that live on these parcels. As a Board member of The Preserve our community voted we did not want to be rezoned and the town ignored us. Additionally both condo properties would have to be razed to the ground to accommodate such housing. While South St, sits with vacant buildings that could be developed. I am so sad our town is so tone deaf to its citizens.
Mr. Wieland,
Thank you for your perspective! You are right! The MBTA Communities decision should have been about picking ‘buildable lots’ because, when Gov Baker passed the MBTA Communities Act, he wanted towns adjacent to T-stops to build mixed-use, high density housing so people would be more likely to use public transportation vs commute using their car and clogging already congested freeways. In fact, more revenue from mixed use buildings could have helped to offset the growing bills Hopkinton faces in the near future.
But we went a different direction and there’s a special term for what the Town did with MBTA Communities – did you know the Town voted for ‘paper compliance?’ What paper compliance means is that, instead of picking vacant property like you suggested on South Street, instead, the Town picked parcels with existing, lived in properties ON PURPOSE because NO SANE DEVELOPER would buy, then raze the Preserve to the ground, then erect a mixed use building because it wouldn’t be financially profitable.
And I’m sure you know that from 2010-2020 Hopkinton was the fastest growing town in Mass. In fact, you probably also remember that, in order to accomodate growth, citizens of Hopkinton passed at Town meeting $158.4M in new debt to fund new schools (Charleswood & Hopkins reno). And because of this huge debt increase from schools, many in town feared that if build-able lots were chosen for the MBTA Communities and if a developer added new housing units and the new housing could add more students that Town might need to build more schools for, and then raise your taxes even more to fund MORE capital debt! So, when you correctly said, “[The Preserve] properties would have to be razed to the ground to accommodate such housing.” You’re right! And that’s why they were chosen! So there WOULDN’T be new housing!
And Eric, want to know what’s EVEN BETTER than not risking raising your taxes by putting the MBTA on build-able land? The fact that The Preserve HOA bylaws clearly prohibit any single tenant from demolishing their condo or adding more condos without a super-majority of Preserve residents voting to allow the new construction. So, it’s almost like The Preserve is the PERFECT place to not risk adding housing because there’s no way you guys will vote for it AND there’s no where to put new housing at the Preserve for MBTA Communities because it’s completely built out!
But Eric, it could be worse – want to know how? If Hopkinton didn’t achieve at least partial compliance with MBTA Communities with the state at town meeting, that would mean the attorney general would have sued us (just like the state did with Milton) immediately on top of the morass of other Legal woes the town has faced. And want to know what Milton has spent on legal bill so far? More than $300,000 – google it. So we saved the town money by putting MBTA Communities on the Preserve.
But Eric, it could get way worse if we are non-compliant! Did you know the governor is also withholding subsidies, grants, or other state funding for being non-compliant with MBTA Communities (aka 3a)? In fact, did you know that Weston, which has about $350M in new middle/high school replacement costs, planed on 31% of those costs being paid by the state, but that funding is going to be withheld due to non-compliance with 3a?! And that means that if Hopkinton is non-compliant, we may have to pay MORE for schools – possibly up to $49M MORE – meaning you could pay $500/yr more in taxes on top of the peak $1,400 more per taxes/yr to fund schools projects over the next two decades. So passing MBTA Communities in Hopkinton saved YOU money!
But Eric, it gets EVEN WORSE if we aren’t compliant with MBTA communities…!
Hopkinton is also trying to hook up to the MWRA which would give clean, non-PFAS water to the Town. (Fun fact, a water line will likely run by The Preserve and, if this happens and if The Preserve hook up to Town Water, it might solve that PFAS problem you currently have!) BUT if we aren’t compliant with MBTA communities, we won’t be eligble for MassWorks-type grants for road/water/sewer improvements from the state to fund the MWRA hookup project, which could delay hooking up to MWRA and mean poor drinking water for people in town and cost the town $7-$14M to ratepayers/taxpayers to fund the project PLUS what it will take to improve our PFAS filtering capabilities across the town costing you more on your property taxes! So passing MBTA Communities means better water for the Town and maybe even your condo association!
But Eric, I know what you’re thinking… It can’t get worse and I’m here to tell you, Eric, in fact YES it can get worse! If we aren’t compliant with MBTA communities the Town could lose future funding from the following sources many we’ve recently taken advantage of:
DCR Dams & Seawalls Grant Program – We just got $200k
MassWorks Infrastructure Program – We got $3M from this for Main Street
Housing Choice Initiative Grants – We are eligible today bc of MBTA Comms for funding
Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program – We just got $173k
Trails / Rail Trail Improvement Grants – $100k received previously
Local Capital Projects Fund
PRISM Literacy Grant (DESE – school literacy funding) & Financial Literacy Program for School Districts
MassDOT / local infrastructure grants / School Property Reuse / Redevelopment Planning Grants
Flood Mitigation Grants / Land & Water Conservation Grants
ADA Accessibility Grants
The state could even withhold CPC funding which we need for about $10M in capital for Center School and the high school needs a NEW HVAC system which is estimated to cost between $13-$20M and we’d lose out on ~$3M in state incentives for the system if we aren’t compliant with MBTA communities.
All of the above represents tens of thousands of dollars in property taxes over the next 10-15 years that you saved by passing MBTA Communities Eric!
And Eric, I’m here with some good news too!
1. All we have to do is go to town meeting and approve an updated map which extends the MBTA communities district from Walcott Valley to the downtown and if we do that, we avoid getting sued by the state costing hundreds of thousands in legal fees and we avoid paying thousands upon thousands more in property taxes due to lost funding from Grants, subisidies, and more!
2. When we pass the updated map, the MBTA Communities zoning doesn’t force the Town to build anything!
2. The updated map also still won’t force you to sell your home!
3. There’s still a 0% chance the State will ever use eminent domain with MBTA Communities – why? Because there is literally no documented case in Massachusetts State history where the State seized land in order to build high density affordable housing across multiple towns at a single time. That sort of thing is reserved for capital projects, like bridges or resevoirs. And Eric, Could you imagine the political and legal backlash of the state trying to seize property across 177 towns and the thousands of residents officials would incur a wrath from?! Just think about it for a second…. it would be a judicial crisis, logistical quagmire, and political nightmare all in one!
4. Here’s the best news! The Preserve property values haven’t suffered from MBTA Communities, in fact the opposite – since the town approved MBTA Communities, 7 Forest Lane #7 recently sold for $633k and it originally listed for $600k, so it actually sold OVER the asking price! How bout that! Horray for increasing property values!
So, to conclude, nothing happened to your home after MBTA Communities passed, you haven’t been materially harmed – infact values went up! Plus, the state supreme judicial court has literally shut down all activist lawsuits saying MBTA Communities is constitutional, every MBTA community must comply, the unfunded mandate arguments are unfounded, non-compliant towns lost their challenges in every conceivable way possible, and the AG can legally enforce the law. Therefore, ALL residents in Hopkinton need to chill the ‘f’ out about this, pass the well thought out paper compliance maps we have which avoid adding growth to the town, and we need to move on to real issues.
AND RESIDENTS, BE ADVISED: ANYONE says the following: MBTA Communities/3A is a power grab, rezoning, will cause overcrowding, force Hopkinton residents to sell, force Hopkinton to build, that the Town can refuse to comply without consequence, that it will destroy the town, or is a violation of property rights, or will reduce property values – if anyone says any of this is possibly misinformed, lying, confused, or a lawyer milking you for billable hours to represent you on a bridge to no-where.