Milton

Guilty!

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It was a quiet summer in Milton. On Monday, MA Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll came to town for a groundbreaking of a 92 unit mixed income apartment building in a formerly under-utilized parcel behind the main business district in East Milton Square. I attended the groundbreaking and then later posted about it on the two main Facebook pages in town – Milton Neighbors and Everything Milton.

Oh boy. The comments flowed…illiberally.

“This is not progress at all, it is destruction of a wonderful neighborhood and it is wrong.”

“And up go the projects.”

“More migrants waited on hand and foot.”

“Can’t wait for the hookers and crack addicts..”

“Mr. Callahan is so happy to destroy a nice town.”

Guilty as charged?! I am happy that this development is moving forward. I’m also happy that the 52 unit Ice House condominiums on the other side (my side) of town are being sold and occupied. Thirteen of the homes will be sold to low-to moderate-income first-time buyers later this summer and fall. I’m happy that we are finally in compliance with the state laws on MBTA Communities and accessory dwelling units.

What the haters fail to appreciate is that new homes will not destroy Milton but rather they will make us a better town. Milton is not on its way to becoming a “city” as many have voiced. But the next generation may have a chance to live in this “nice town” if we continue to add a diverse mix of homes at various price points.

I’m happy our young family chose to move to Milton thirty years ago. I’m happy that we have stayed long after our children have grown up and out. Milton is a nice town (those Facebook comments notwithstanding) and I’m happy that so many of our neighbors work so hard to make sure Milton welcomes neighbors, new and old alike. Find me guilty of that!

Deja vu? Non, merci!

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Yogi Berra famously said, it’s like “deja vu all over again”. Yes, I’m a Yankee fan but even diehard Red Sox fans can agree that deja vu all over again befits the situation in Milton perfectly.

It has been eighteen months to the day since Milton’s town clerk certified signatures to place a question on the ballot seeking to overturn a town meeting vote for the first time in over 50 years. That effort succeeded after a brutal campaign featuring outrageous claims by the forces of “no”. Those claims –from the state won’t sue Milton to we won’t lose any state grants – have proven to be false.

Our intrepid band of NIMBYs kept battling against the odds. Like a gambler at a casino who keeps thinking the next hand will turn the tide, they keep losing and losing big. Today, they lost again…big. Sixteen residents filed suit challenging Milton’s designation as a rapid transit community and, by extension, our requirement to zone for 2,461 units. Just a week ago, they said this was their big chance. A favorable judge, they said. A first chance at “adjudicating” the trolley as rapid transit argument, they said.

“Nope” said the court. The courts have said no all along the way. The legislature has refused to consider amendments to water down the law. The state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities has been steadfast. A local attorney that wanted the town to file a similar claim declined to take on the case after realizing the Select Board intended to follow the law and the lead of town meeting and submit the newly passed zoning plan to the state for approval.

Milton’s new zoning amendment fully complies with state law. And leaves East Milton, the neighborhood which voted in large majorities to reject the 2023 zoning, largely out of the plan. It is, in many respects, a better plan. A better plan from a planning perspective and a better plan politically.

But Denny Swenson and her acolytes began gathering signatures in earnest on Monday in another attempt to repeal the latest compliant zoning plan passed by town meeting. Deja vu. They can’t win in a forum made up of 279 elected town meeting representatives dominated by well-informed residents. But they proved last February they can win with a well-funded campaign featuring lies, fear and exaggeration. So they attempted to try again.

But you can never exactly recreate the same political environment. Many voters move on. Anger subsides. And towns do face real consequences for ignoring a state law.

Today’s 5pm deadline for signatures came and went and no signatures were filed. Organizers haven’t made a public statement yet but they undoubtedly struggled to reach the required 1,100 signatures need to put this before voters. They definitely had less volunteers this time around. There is anecdotal evidence of better-informed voters declining to sign the petition.

Whatever the reason, the outcome is good for Milton. Inclusivity won. Milton becomes community #139 to comply with a state upzoning law that will not solve our housing crisis, but will become part of a long-term strategy to make our all of our communities a bit more welcoming.

Yogi might say, “it ain’t over ’til it’s over.” Last ditch legal strategies will continue. Political posturing will continue.

But, it is over.

The Pope and the Plan

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On May 8, 2025 two momentous events happened. In Rome, the College of Cardinals elected an American Pope. Minutes before the white smoke appeared Vatican experts were on television saying it would never happen. And then it did.

Later that evening in Milton, our Planning Board voted to advance a zoning plan that met the state’s requirements for our town after many of us saying that it would never happen. I believe I heard church bells ringing in town, perhaps celebrating both votes!

While Pope Leo XIV celebrates a week on the job, Milton’s compliant zoning plan didn’t make it that far. On May 13th, our Planning Board took a highly unusual step and rescinded its vote, deciding to advance another plan that is out of compliance with the state law and zones for 60% less housing than the state has required.

Pray for us.

The now-rescinded plan would have brought us into compliance, sparing East Milton residents who voted overwhelmingly against the previous plan in 2024, and creating multi-family zoning districts in more neighborhoods in West Milton. It is not a perfect plan but it is a good, thoughtful plan crafted by Planning Board member Cheryl Tougias (the lone voice of compliance on our Planning Board) and the town’s expert consultants from Utile.

What comes next is anyone’s guess. Milton is at risk of missing yet another state deadline. And being sued once again. And continuing to lose out on state grants, the latest being the loss of a grant for a van for our Council on Aging. Outgoing Select Board member Erin Bradley tallied the total cost to Milton so far as over $1.1 million in legal fees and lost grants.

Pray for us now.

There is hope beyond the prayers. While two incumbents were returned to the Planning Board, two new members were elected to the Select Board and a new Town Moderator was elected as well. Town Meeting is strongly in favor of following the law. But zoning articles must pass through the Planning Board and four of the five members seem to be doing everything in their power to avoid our responsibility to follow a state mandate.

Pray for us.

Pray for a kind and benevolent special master appointed by the Attorney General if we continue to resist. Pray for state officials with short memories when we do eventually comply and the state evaluates funding requests from Milton for vans, schools, public safety, and more. And pray for our neighbors who need more housing options in a town that hasn’t grown in over fifty years. Our population in 1970 was 27,190; today it is 28,811 – a 0.1% annual growth rate. For comparison, neighboring Canton has grown by over 7,000 residents in that time; Sharon over 6,000.

An American Pope and a compliant zoning plan turned out to be too much to expect in one day. But Rome wasn’t built in a day. Milton will be in compliance, consistent with being a rapid transit community. It will be a day in the future. And it will be a day!

Good neighbors

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What makes a good neighbor? Someone you can rely on in a pinch? Someone that will keep an eye on your house while you’re away? The type of person you would invite over for a beer and a barbeque?

What about a neighbor who will support an affordable housing “monstrosity” when others in the immediate vicinity of said development are opposed? Certainly, he can’t be a good neighbor.

That was me tonight. Tonight was hard. It was tough. It is always tough to be the lone voice in a public hearing. But when a dozen of your fellow townspeople are pouring their hearts out to the Board of Appeals about how this particular 90 unit mixed income development will destroy their quality of life, it is especially difficult.

They are wrong, of course. Well, not wrong on all fronts but their predictions of doom will not come to pass should this development get built. Studies and 40 years of experience with Chapter 40B in Massachusetts prove that predictions from critics (almost always abutters) never come to pass. There are almost always less children in the public schools than opponents claim. Traffic somehow manages to flow despite dire forecasts of gridlock and accidents. Trees grow, wetlands survive, and people adapt.

It won’t be the same, of course, but hardly anything ever is the same. And change can often mean positive change. It looks like the hospice on Randolph Avenue in Milton not far from the proposed 40B is a positive change. St. Elizabeth’s old rectory was a deteriorating eyesore that did nothing for the town or the property value of its neighbors. Goodness knows we all will welcome the change when and if the Hendries site is ever redeveloped.

But it is tougher when turkeys and deer occupy the woods surrounding the proposed site. It is harder to find the positive change. But 23 affordable apartments renting from $1,100 to $1,600 to households of modest means is a positive change in Milton. Moving the needle on the state’s Subsidized Housing Inventory from 4.9% to 5.8% with just one development is a positive change. Moving ever closer to joining towns like Canton, Dedham, Cohasset, Lexington, and Concord that have reached 10% on the state’s SHI is a positive change.

Tonight was hard. Some of the arguments made by opponents were over the top. “We will all have blood on our hands” if this development is approved, said one neighbor suggesting that people will die in traffic accidents due to the development. Route 28 is indeed a dangerous stretch of road and people do die in traffic accidents on that road each year. But implying that public officials (state and local) will have blood on their hands if this development is approved is demagoguery at its worst.

Police won’t enforce local traffic laws in the vicinity of the proposed development because “a source inside the department” tells Jonathan Hall (of WHDH-TV and a neighbor to the proposed 40B) that Milton backed off because of a Globe spotlight series on the racial imbalance of traffic stops in town several years ago. He went on to say that a disproportionate number of Blacks were being stopped “on their way to Blue Hill Ave.” Interesting sourcing on this story for someone who makes his living reporting the news. Also interesting given that both my wife and I have been deterred from violating the traffic laws by the presence of the same police department on the streets Mr. Hall claims that they don’t visit.

All of the criticisms weren’t over the top. Many expressed concern about fire truck access, school bus access, and pedestrian access to bus stops. Very legitimate concerns that the developer either has or will need to address. Addressing the housing affordability crisis in greater Boston happens on the ground in a seeming endless number of hearings like what happened tonight in Milton. Progress is slow and it is hard.