2021 Elect John Meneghini

  Q: Understanding our shared opposition to the PUD bylaw, what is your solution for redevelopment of industrial properties? Does housing belong on land zoned industrial? If so, what would be an acceptable type of housing and/or number of units in one overlay? As I have stated in a previous post, encouraging the redevelopment of industrial property through the use of the PUD zoning law is the source of the problem. I've already made it clear that I want to see the PUD zoning law repealed.  There are already a number of zoning laws available - including some mixed use overlays - which allow developers and commercial land owners to effectively "re-zone" their property for residential use. The problem is, this PUD zoning law is specifically written to allow high density development on commercial land. You don't need to read any further than the first paragraph to see this. 5.E.9 PLANNEDUNITDEVELOPMENTDISTRICT Statement of Purpose and Authority The purpose of thi...

  Q:  Currently under our zoning bylaws, Open Space Zoning does not exist. Believe it or not, Jones Forest is zoned industrial. My first question is; Do you support an Open Space Zoning Bylaw? If so, how would you define open space and put this bylaw into practice?   Do you support a tree protection bylaw for Billerica? If so, what would you like to see included and excluded from the bylaw? I would have to do more research into these topics before I can say that such proposals are possible but I am definitely in support of doing more to protect the unnecessary destruction of trees and natural habitat.  In my opinion, deleterious laws which make it difficult for home owners to care for the habitat they have on their own property would be undesirable.  However, regulating how developers unnecessarily clear-cut trees - as they did on the Pond Street solar project - is something that is within the per-view of the Planning Board and as a member of the Planning Board ...

If you watch the BATV candidate statements my video is not included.  This is because of some last minute production problems.  Specifically, I was not supposed to have my sign up in the background of the video.  However my candidate statement will be broadcast on BATV immediately following the the other videos. So if you'll stay tuned, you'll see my candidate statement, without the BATV banner at the bottom of the screen, immediately following all of the other the candidate statements. In addition, you can see my candidate statement on my YouTube channel: planning-for-billerica . For people who are interested in seeing others' candidate statement here is the link: https://billerica.cablecast.tv/CablecastPublicSite/show/3283?channel=3 The Committee to Elect John Meneghini 33 Timbercreek Rd. Billerica, MA 01821 https://planning-for-meneghini.blogspot.com/ Email: planning.for.meneghini@gmail.com Phone: 978-435-4224

This is an early release of my BATV Candidate Statement. John Meneghini Candidate Recording The Committee to Elect John Meneghini 33 Timbercreek Rd. Billerica, MA 01821 https://planning-for-meneghini.blogspot.com/ Email: planning.for.meneghini@gmail.com Phone: 978-435-4224

  Q: What kind of Planning Board Representative will you be? Q; Personally I’m looking for a Planning board member who is going to ask questions and who will make sure the residents questions get answered. Someone who will do their homework on the project’s that come before them. And listen to the residents someone who will have the developer work more with residents. Not the other way around. I couldn’t agree with this statement more. Any person in elected office should represent their constituents. This means the Planning Board, the Select Board and Town Meeting represents you and I - the citizens who elect them. It’s not matter of party affiliation or ideology and it’s not even a matter of agreement. Any elected town official represents the interests of our town, not the interests of a corporation or an individual, and certainly not the interests of themselves. This is why it’s called public service. As a member of the Billerica Town Meeting and Planing Board, I hope to fai...

  Q: You want to increase open space and develop parks and recreational facilities. However it directly conflicts with your desire for lower taxes as it will take considerable sums of money to achieve and maintain. I don’t think there’s any conflict here. It’s simply a matter of setting goals and working towards an objective. We have a Town Manager who has proven to be a creative and resourceful money manager. I’d like to see some of that creativity and resourcefulness directed to the problem of rising taxes and work towards the goal of lowering our taxes and our debt. The Town Manager has saved Billerica all kinds of money. We need to have an objective to give those savings back to the taxpayers. Q: What are your thoughts about the Peggy Hannon Rizza project? The PHR project impresses me as a project that needs to be finished. I don’t know much about the history of this project, so I hesitate to say more. I have withdrawn my comment about the Masonic Lodge being an example o...

Q: You state that the town needs more affordable housing. The only way to do that is to increase housing in general. No one is going to build a development of strictly affordable housing. In fact the only affordable housing that has been built in recent years has been in condo and apartment developments. The reason the only affordable housing that has been built in recent years has been   nothing but condos and apartment buildings is because that's what the current zoning laws encourage.  Town Meeting is the authority for all zoning and taxes laws. We get what we vote for. If we want more affordable housing, we can create new zoning laws to encourage that. For example, I would like to see more two-family homes built and sold to homeowners. Homeowners make better landlords and the additional income from the second unit makes the home more affordable. Renters receive the benefit of living in a home and a neighborhood rather than in an apartment building.  Will large, n...

  Q: You say you want to encourage commercial growth by lowering the tax rate to attract more business. The Planning Board has no control over taxes, and the only way we can lower business taxes is to change the business tax shift which would increase residential taxes. This is not necessarily true. My understanding is that the commercial tax rate is higher than the residential tax rate, and the PUD zoning laws will significantly reduce the commercial square footage for some of these properties. This effectively lowers taxes and increases profits for the commercial property owner, especially if the new use for that property is a high density apartment building. I believe the Billerica Mall project decreases the square footage of commercial space by almost 80,000 SF. More than likely the resulting decrease in tax revenue will fall back onto the home owners in the town, many of whom didn’t want this kind of development in the first place. Yes, it is true that the Planning Board...

  NOTE: This blog post is reproduced from Janet Morris' excellent Nextdoor post titled PUD Zoning Articles for TM the video truth from 2016. We have been told that the residents and TM reps knew what they were voting for.... I decided to investigate and hear for myself. I was beyond shocked. Here’s the actual meeting. I encourage you to listen and hear the “Business Development” proposal we were promised (not housing). Our current situation is not what we were promised. We are so VULNERABLE! BATV meeting: https://reflect-billerica.cablecast.tv/CablecastPublicSite/show/2850?channel=3 Breakdown: 1:46:47 Fincom recommends 1:48:50 Fincom minority report **excellent** 1:54:38 Planning Board recommends 1:55:51 Town Manager recommends 1:59:47 Economic Development presentation “Businesses Development” 2:06:24 Selectmen (2) speak in favor 2:09:34 TM begin discussion 4 people speak 2:16:16 attempt to move the question fails 2:17:46 Ralph McKenna **nailed it** 2:...

Q: I’d like to hear a little more on your stance about mixed use zoning. When I think mixed use I think of towns with walkable centers, I'd like to see more of that and less swaths of land dedicated to just industrial use. The term “mixed use” zoning itself doesn’t mean anything more than the use of more than one zoning law on the same property. Mixed use zoning will not necessarily guarantee pedestrian access to businesses. It will only allow an additional or combined use of a commercial, residential, or agricultural, etc. property that is already zoned for one specific use.  Mixed use zoning can work well in some situations. It all depends upon two things: the zoning law itself, and the specific site where the mixed use zoning law is applied. The issue we are dealing with in Billerica isn’t that fact that we have mixed use zoning. The town already had more than one mixed use zoning law in 2016, before the PUD zoning laws were added by a vote at Town Meeting. For example, the...

My goals in running for office are: To work towards preserving and strengthening the things that make Billerica a great place for families to thrive and grow. To support those who are already working towards these same goals, on the Select Board, the Panning Board, the School Committee, the Finance Committee, at Town Meeting and elsewhere. To encourage others in our community to get involved and serve in town government. In line with the above goals, my platform is to: Repeal the Planned Unit Development (PUD) Zoning by-laws. These zoning by-laws, which went into effect in 2016, have taken the power to control the development of massive, high density apartment buildings in our town out of the hands of Town Meeting and placed it in the hands of the Planning Board. If elected on April 10th, 2021 I will work to repeal the existing PUD zoning law, and to support new zoning laws that: Encourage sensible commercial development that strengthens local businesses in our community. O...

My name is John Meneghini and I will be on the ballot this April 10, 2021 in Billerica MA, running for Town Meeting (Precinct 7) and Planning Board. Welcome to my blog. I will use this blog to communicate my campaign platform, my goals in running for office, and my vision for Billerica. First, a little about me. My wife, Karen and I have lived in Billerica for 28 years and have a family of five children and two grandchildren. We moved to Billerica in 1993 when our family was young and we have enjoyed all that this small but wonderful and unassuming town has to offer. As a software engineer I have worked all over the Metro west area and have enjoyed the great central location of this town. Billerica has always offered relatively affordable housing and a lower cost of living. Sometimes I think we never could have afforded to raise such a large family without Market Basket - the best supermarket in the country - and I am glad to see that we have three in our town. For many years Biller...