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.