Milton resident Brian O’Halloran uttered those words just four days before Christmas, apparently unironically. No room at the inn here in our town, I guess.

“It’s impossible for us to understand how adding half of those 2,461 units, how that’s going to be accomplished,” stated O’Halloran in a Dec 21 interview with WBZ-TV News. O’Halloran was speaking in a town that has grown by 4 percent since 1970, surrounded by a region that has grown by over 20 percent during the same time period. Either the 68 year old software engineer is being disingenuous or he is suffering from a complete lack of imagination of how growth can and does happen in the eleventh largest metropolitan region in the US.

The NIMBYs have roared back. Confronted with losing the vote (by a two-thirds majority) to adopt compliant MBTA Communities Act zoning at town meeting on December 11th, they invoked a little-used section of the town charter and collected signatures of five percent of Milton voters in seven days to force a town-wide referendum in late January or early February. It was an impressive show of organization and passion to obtain the requisite number of signatures in the busy holiday season.

We have, of course, responded as well. Our Yes for Milton ballot question campaign committee filed with the town clerk on December 20th, one day before the WBZ interview. We are developing our plan to make our case to Milton voters over the next month. A 30 page zoning amendment that has been debated for over 18 months will now be decided by campaign slogans on each side. Yes for Milton or Just Say No. Stay tuned.