Marlborough council upholds mayor's veto of affordable housing zoning amendments

MARLBOROUGH — April 24, 2023 — Marlborough council unanimously sustains mayor's veto on mixed-use affordable housing zoning. The 11-0 roll call on Order 22-23-1008721D kills the council's prior ordinance amendment to Chapter 650 and sends the underlying order back to Urban Affairs, where Council President Michael H. Ossing has proposed reducing a 15-unit affordability trigger and removing a 20 percent set-aside requirement. Councilor Robert Perlman pressed for an AMI-tiered "very affordable" carve-out in the redraft, saying the goal is that "the affordable housing numbers are actually reaching people in the community." The council also referred a proposed Moderna TX, Inc. TIF agreement at 149 Hayes Memorial Drive to Finance, rescinded $8,983,087 in unused Goodnow Brothers Elementary School bond authority on Councilor John J. Irish's motion, and set a May 22 public hearing on a petition from Marlborough Apartment Partners 2, LLC to double the Executive Residential Overlay District cap from 475 to 950 units.