The Malden City Council on Tuesday, October 27 enrolled a rewrite of the city’s inclusionary zoning ordinance that lowers the share of affordable units required in buildings of more than eight units from 15 to 10 percent, 9 to 1, and a companion package of height and parking incentives for those projects, 9 to 0. Both papers return for a final ordination vote at the council’s next meeting on November 10; the overhaul needs eight votes to pass and the incentives six, which is why the city’s legal office had the paper split in committee.
Councillor Stephen Winslow, who chairs the Rules and Ordinance Committee and sponsored both papers, said the 2021 ordinance called for a review every five years and that consultants found inflation and interest rates make the 15 percent requirement “very hard to plan” around. Councillor Carey McDonald said units “are not getting built under our policy” because developers pay for affordable units out of the margin on market rate units, and that lenders look at the same numbers: “15 percent of zero is still zero.” A resident’s email read into the record said only three affordable projects have been built in the last five years. McDonald requested that letters from Housing Families and Malden North Housing Corp. be attached to the paper.
The fight over splitting the paper
Councillor Ryan O’Malley, attending remotely, renewed his request to split the affordability percentage into its own paper so it could be voted separately, as he had moved in committee. Winslow raised a point of order that the halves could not stand alone, and Council President Amanda Linehan ruled against the split, reciting the committee history: O’Malley’s motion to split, a challenge to the chair that was voted down, his offer of a minority report declined, and his amendment to keep 15 percent defeated. O’Malley said it was his professional opinion that the percentage is not what stops housing in Malden, citing moratoriums on multifamily homes, parking requirements and “the middle of a trade war,” and that “it’s not fair when there is a set of rules for the people that we like and a different set of rules for those we don’t like.” He voted for both papers anyway and was added as a co-sponsor of the incentives.
Councillor Jadeane Sica cast the only vote against the overhaul, saying the building commissioner and city planner had raised concerns that had not been addressed: “Just because we have the authority to do something doesn’t mean it’s always the right thing to do.” She said parking in her ward is “out of control,” with permit parking imposed on Kennedy, Skyline, Winchester, Glenmere and Truman streets because of residents of the Altitude complex, and left the meeting before the incentives vote after learning a friend had died.
What the incentives do
The incentives paper, as amended, offers height bonuses outside Residence A districts, drops a proposed location bonus the committee could not agree on, and sets parking at 1.1 spaces per market rate unit and 0.7 per affordable unit under an amendment by Councillor Peg Crowe, replacing the current per-bedroom formula for every unit in the building. McDonald said the per-bedroom rule “exponentially increases your parking costs” for family-sized units. Winslow added a sentence requested by the city planner and legal office clarifying that the incentives override only density, height and parking requirements. Councillor Paul Condon credited Crowe with “outstanding ability to work out a compromise.” Winslow said car payments above $1,000 a month make a car-light life in Malden a real choice; Linehan said the council “learned a lot about what we might do next.”
National Grid poles
After a public hearing, the council granted 11 to 0 four of five National Grid petitions for new poles on Blaine Street, Hancock Road, Lynn Street and Eastern Avenue, part of a new express feeder from the Maplewood substation to the Wesley Street area that will shift half the load of an overloaded circuit to Melrose. Sica, the ward councillor, objected to a third pole in front of 6 Blaine Street; resident James Fitzgerald said it would give “some driver another target to aim for to knock it on top of my house.” The utility agreed to move the pole 20 feet toward the corner, to 30 feet south of pole 2023, the minimum spacing its standards allow. The fifth item, an underground duct bank at Broadway and Eastern Avenue, was split off and the company told to file a new petition after review by the city engineer and the design team for the Broadway corridor project, which Winslow said is near 25 percent design and will likely cost $20 million or more. The company said work would not begin before spring.
Also at the meeting
- The council ordained, unanimously, the first half of a use table rewrite with about 15 changes, allowing hospitals in industrial zones and, by right, medical centers, sit-down restaurants, convenience stores, adult day care, research and development, kennels and towing in various business and industrial districts; the rest stays in committee. Councillor Chris Simonelli said it avoids the spot zoning problem he ran into trying to open Route 60 in his neighborhood.
- An ordinance moving supervision of the animal control officer from the police department to the Department of Public Health and Human Services, requested by the mayor’s office after a new officer was hired, was enrolled unanimously without a committee referral.
- Winslow’s proposal to raise the maximum hotel height from four stories to six stories or 75 feet went to the Rules and Ordinance Committee to be considered alongside a shift from special permits to site plan review; McDonald, O’Malley and Councillor Karen Colon Hayes joined as co-sponsors.
- McDonald’s order cutting $800,000 from the Department of Public Works budget, from $9,525,480 to $8,725,480, so the fiscal 2026 snow and ice deficit is raised on the tax recap instead, went to the Finance Committee for November 10; he said the question forced the postponement of the tax classification hearing.
- The council ordained the assistant department head salary schedule and approved $157,000 and $220,000 transfers from salary reserve for retroactive contract settlements through June 30, the second a 3 percent cost of living adjustment for the patrol officers’ union; McDonald said the city has bargained for zero increases this year after the March override failed.
- Dr. Scune Carrington, John “Jack” Colangeli and Dr. Kunwar Singh were reappointed to the Board of Health through October 2029, unanimously.
- Councillor Ari Taylor thanked firefighters from several communities who responded to a Porter Street fire on Friday and reported more than 300 guests and about 65 volunteers at the Haunted Woods; Crowe put Sunday’s trunk or treat crowd at about 800 children. The city’s comprehensive plan workshop is Saturday, November 7 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the senior and teen center.
All 11 councillors answered the roll. The recording is on Urban Media Arts’ YouTube channel and the agenda is on the city’s Agenda Center.
