Status of my bills: 2024 edition
I periodically receive questions about the status of different ordinances or resolutions I personally sponsored. There usually a delay between different initiatives being introduced to Council and the final passage of an ordinance, so I thought I’d list the status of what I introduced in session this season and where it’s currently at.
Resolution supporting adult access to plant medicine
This passed in one session, and a version of a similar initiative (though not quite what the City Council sponsored) will appear on the November ballot.
This resolution to develop a home rule petition for a real estate transfer fee —which would have given Medford the option put up to 2% of sales of homes over a million dollars into the Affordable Housing Trust, if the state approved it — was sent to the Planning and Permitting Committee at the March 16th meeting, which was quite contentious. It received the most attention of anything I’ve put on the Council agenda thus far this term, partially because initial drafts of the Affordable Homes Act contained a version of the transfer fee. Unfortunately, as often happens on Beacon Hill, this was nixed following a campaign by the real estate lobby. C’est la vie. This caused the City Council to deprioritize it in favor of more pertinent initiatives, namely the zoning updates and the upcoming Prop 2.5 Override — both of which are far more likely to have an impact on Medford residents in the near term.
This was an initiative I had that was very popular when campaigning at the doors, especially since we have a lot of empty storefronts in West Medford and South Medford. It would charge landlords who own vacant storefronts and choose to keep them empty for years and years for continuing to do so. Landlords have a lot of reasons for doing this, ranging from genuinely not being able to find a good tenant to property speculation to mental health issues.
This initiative ran into two problems: first, City Council doesn’t have any legal authority to do this, which means that we would need to ask the state via home rule petition, as was discussed at a recent Admin & Finance Committee meeting. Needless to say, this complicates the process. The second problem was that both city staff and the Chamber of Commerce didn’t really like the idea. I split it into two initiatives: one is a home rule petition, which would allow Medford to pass an actual vacancy tax if the state approves. The second is a vacant building ordinance, which mirrors an initiative done in Easthampton. This would charge landlords owning vacant buildings a small fee to upkeep a City database on vacant properties. This is entirely in the City’s authority. I the second is likelier to pass, since (1) it’s milder, (2) it’s been done elsewhere, and (3) it doesn’t need to go through the state.
Medford’s linkage fee program charges developers certain fees that go towards City upkeep — water and sewer, police and fire, and so on. Our fees haven’t been updated since 1990 and so we’re lowballing developers.
This initiative is going remarkably well behind the scenes. The Planning office is working on finding consultants to perform a nexus study to find out what Medford’s linkage fees ought to be updated to. There is a potential complication following a Supreme Court Decision regarding impact fees (Medford is the only city in the state with this kind of linkage fee), but our lawyers told us that we don’t have anything to worry about.
Transportation Demand Management
Like the other zoning-related updates, I drafted a version of this and passed it to the consultants helping Council with our zoning overhaul, so it’ll be included in that bill at some stage before next year. The consultants and I met with the Lower Mystic Transportation Management Association to discuss the ordinance last month. Once the ordinance is in place, a challenge we’ll then face is getting staff to implement a transportation study that would then implement the program.
Accessory Dwelling Unit Updates
I never introduced this to the full Council (though I did blog about it), but I worked on a version of an ADU update with Housing Medford and then passed it to the consultants. In the works. This is partially complicated because a few ADU changes were in the latest Affordable Homes Act bill.
Resolution to allow Director of Veterans Services to Offer Housing Incentives to Veteran Renters
This initiative would let the Veteran Services Director offer up to $500 to landlords who choose to rent to qualified veterans. After the whole City Council and the Veterans Services Director said that it’s A-OK, we ran into some legal trouble behind the scenes when our lawyers said that it might go against Massachusetts Public Purpose law, and they thought a nonprofit should be involved as an intermediary. I asked the Finance Director last week to talk to the Department of Revenue about whether any similar initiatives could be used as a model for this program. So, in the works.
Resolution to Publish a City Council Newsletter
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This was never a formal resolution, but I spent time running around behind the scenes getting our meetings onto YouTube and getting livestreaming to work with the accounts. I currently organize the playlists and timestamp the regular meetings.
That’s about it, in terms of anything concrete that I personally introduced. Other things I’ve discussed, like a community letter about airplane noise, are still early stage and/or went on the backburner; and still other initiatives, like the Council’s listening sessions, I have worked to implement, even though the ideas came from others.
What I’m most excited about in the coming year is working with my colleagues on the zoning updates; working to ensure that the Prop 2.5 Override passes; and working with the newly appointed Affordable Housing Trust on housing policy recommendations.
