By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — Despite an hour-long delay to check in well over 750 voters in attendance at the annual Town Meeting on Monday night, the voters managed to get through all 31 warrant articles and quickly dispensed with the one-article Special Town Meeting warrant.
The business was conducted in about 3 hours and 40 minutes, adjoining around 11:40 p.m. — far earlier than a typical bi-weekly Select Board meeting where much of the meat of these warrant articles were fleshed out over the past several months.
The quickened pace of the meeting has been attributed in part to the first-ever implementation of electronic voting clickers, which eliminated the need for hand-counting votes in those instances when a voice vote would be too tough to call, particularly on votes when a two-thirds majority is required. Voters also required those making presentations who requested 10-minute leaves of the meeting to toe the line to keep the meeting moving.
Pass over STM
The Special Town Meeting to potentially authorize the town to appropriate funds to purchase the site of the former Stop & Shop (now leased to Ocean State Job Lob) at 97 Main St. was passed over. It was explained by Select Board Chairman Stephen O’Leary that a sale between two private parties is moving forward. What would be proposed for the site should that sale proceed is not known at this time and he left open the possibility of this request coming back before the voters in the future due to the prime location of this property at Routes 28 and 62. Special Town Meetings require a quorum of 150 voters.
Approve MBTA/3A Communities Act
The majority of voters turned out to take action on the three Citizens’ Petitions that the proponents advocated as enabling the town to come into full compliance with the MBTA/3A Communities Act and therefore not lose eligibility for numerous state-funded grants. Since February, the town has been in interim compliance with the state mandate, but that status will expire for all communities in July.
The new Section 3A of MGL Ch. 40A ( the Zoning Act) requires the 177 communities within the variously defined service areas of the MBTA to allow by right multifamily zoning in an overlay district. North Reading’s planners selected as its overlay district the land comprising the current 406 units at Edgewood Apartments, which has a single owner, and the 502 condominium units for those 55+ at Martins Landing. The MBTA/3A zone needed to be in an area that could support at least 750 total units on a site of at least 50 acres (this area has 80) for a gross density of 15 units per acre. This site also has a requirement for 85% open space due to the limitations of imperious surfaces within the underlying Aquifer Protection District stated Town Planner Danielle McKnight.
According to O’Leary, who brought the three petitions forward after Community Planning Commission opted not to update what had been passed last October by the June Town Meeting warrant deadline and since the courts have ruled that it is constitutional it is prudent to come into compliance.
Opponents feared that acceptance of the law would force the elimination of the 55+ age restriction for Martins Landing. McKnight explained that zoning laws cannot be used to restrict age or numbers of bedrooms and currently the town’s zoning does not restrict either at Martins Landing as the development was created to be 55+ by the choice of the private owners at its discretion. A total of 778 votes were tallied on the Citizens’ Petition to amend the town’s zoning bylaws and establish the Lowell Road Multi-Family Overlay District, which passed by a margin of 534-244. The voters also immediately moved to reconsider the article so that it would not be taken up again later in the meeting when many voters would have left. The second Citizens’ Petition to amend the town’s Site Plan Review, Article XVII under the zoning bylaws passed 559-191. The third Citizens’ Petition to amend the zoning map to “correct a scriber’s error” to refer to Article 1 and 2 (not Article 13 and 14) passed by similar margins.
A fourth Citizens’ Petition brought forward by a resident seeking to amend the minimum square footage of the town’s Residence D zoning district where he resides from 120,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet failed 565-39. Its passage was not recommended by the Select Board, Community Planning Commission and the Finance Committee.
Article 8, the transfer of $1.6M to the Capital Improvement Stabilization Fund, passed 496 to 44. Voters also transferred from Free Cash $374,000 to fund the snow and ice deficit under Article 7 and $350,000 to the town’s Stabilization Fund under Article 10; and $100,000 to the School District Reserve Fund for unanticipated SPED costs under Article 14; and $200,000 for Fire Station planning to evaluate a need for a west side station; transferred $530,698 into the Water Stabilization Fund from FY25 retained earnings.
The town also has a balanced budget for FY26, thanks to the passage of Article 16. In FY26, the town’s budgets are being allotted as follows: $40,780,049 for the School Department; $25,606,765 for fixed costs and $20,753,575 for municipal costs.
A complete overview of the Town Meeting, including the debate over the approval by voters to demolish the function hall facility at the Hillview Country Club will be published in next week’s edition of the Transcript.