Weston Planning Board Settles on Transit-Zone Sites, Sparks 40B Conversion Debate

WESTON -- July 22, 2024, Weston planners near consensus on transit-area housing sites as a December compliance deadline approaches. The Planning Board's fifth MBTA Communities Act workshop on July 22 moved toward finalizing a plan to concentrate the required 300 units within a half mile of Kendall Green station on the Boston Properties campus and the Greatland parcel on Riverside Drive, satisfying the state's 40 percent transit-area threshold. Planners said they will pursue 20 percent affordability in the bylaw, citing Concord's recent success at that level, though the state mandates none. The session grew heated when Select Board member Lisa Revers said she was "actually shocked" that planners had presented a detailed analysis of converting contested 40B projects at 518 South Avenue and 104 Boston Post Road to 3A zoning, calling it a "serious conversation" the community had never had, while planning staff countered that the exercise was purely educational and driven by repeated resident questions.