The city is continuing to look at how it can best spur responsible development in West Chelsea.
At the December planning board meeting, planning and land use administrator Will Cecio provided an update on potential redevelopment opportunities in West Chelsea, focusing on the Market Basket parcel and beyond.
“The city’s ongoing goal is to incentivize development in this transit-oriented district,” said Cecio. “We also discussed the underperformance of current zoning districts right now and presented a possible vision and a possible overlay district for the area.”
Since that discussion in the early fall on the overlay district, there has been additional discussion based on feedback from the planning board and other community members.
“We are utilizing some of the findings coming out of the master plan as we start to put this together,” said Cecio. “We have expanded the boundaries. Initially it was covering the Market Basket site and then the site that’s bounded by Spruce, Everett, and then possibly Second or Arlington.
“But we have expanded the boundaries, I know a lot of board members said (we) should expand and seize the opportunity to hopefully transform this area,” Cecio added. “Our vision for the area, we are still crafting it, but I think it includes a lot of similar principles that were presented at the last meeting – mixed-use residential development, increasing public accessibility, and active and open green space in the area.”
Planning for the area will also focus on increasing affordable housing and improving the existing utility infrastructure, Cecio said.
“Over the next couple of meetings, we will be bringing more information to you, more maps, more actual regulations fleshed out, tables; just to give you a chance to kind of chew on it and provide some more feedback and comment as we get ready to hopefully, some point in the spring, send it to the (city) council.”
In other business, Cecio provided an update on the status of an Accessory Dwelling Unit (sometimes known as in-law apartments) ordinance for the city.
“Last summer, the state passed the Affordable Homes Act, which included a piece in there that allowed accessory dwelling units (ADU) by right in any zoning district that allowed single-family housing,” he said. “We quickly brought together a very basic ADU ordinance and brought it to you guys a year ago in December, 2024, because we thought we needed to pass it to be in line with the state’s law. We learned that that wasn’t necessarily required.”
Cecio said that communities that did not have an ordinance in place fell under the regulations of the state ordinance.
The planning board recommended that the city council postpone the hearing on the Chelsea ADU ordinance until the state promulgated some model guidelines and bylaws for the city to review.
“We did receive those guidelines, we have a model bylaw, so we have drafted an ordinance that pretty much follows the state’s model bylaw,” said Cecio.
The model city bylaw will go before the city council for a hearing in January and will be before the planning board in February for its recommendation.