Town Meeting starts on Tuesday, May 27 at 7pm. This year’s Town Meeting will be in-person only in the High School Auditorium (other than for those who need reasonable accommodation), and will continue for up to five additional nights (May 28, and June 4, 5 and if needed, June 10 and 11). Members of the public are welcome to attend at the High School, and can also view it live at this link. You can find videos of prior meetings here.
Here are Brookline for Everyone’s article endorsements:
Article 10 – Annual (FY26) Community Preservation Act Fund Appropriations
- Recommendation: FAVORABLE ACTION
Article 14/15 – Establishing a Process for Reasonable Accommodations from the Zoning and Demolition By-Laws for Modifications to Support Persons with Disabilities
- Recommendation for Article 14: NO ACTION on any referral motion, FAVORABLE ACTION on the Select Board substitute motion, and FAVORABLE ACTION on the main motion regardless of which version comes up for a vote.
- Recommendation for Article 15: NO ACTION on any referral motion, FAVORABLE ACTION on the Select Board substitute motion, and FAVORABLE ACTION on the main motion regardless of which version comes up for a vote.
Article 16 – Increased accommodations for larger bike parking in new construction
- Recommendation: FAVORABLE ACTION on the article
Article 18 – By-Law Changes to Further Reduce Single-Use Plastic by Local Food Establishments
- Recommendation: FAVORABLE ACTION on the article
Article 19 – Expand the Regulation of Plastic Bags to All Brookline Businesses
- Recommendation: FAVORABLE ACTION on the article
Article 24 – A Home Rule Petition Authorizing the Town to Levy a Real Estate Transfer Fee (RETF) on certain Real Property Sales
- Recommendation: FAVORABLE ACTION on the article
Article 26 – Resolution regarding support of legislation to prevent the forced payment of broker fees by tenants
- Recommendation: FAVORABLE ACTION on the article
Article 30 – Resolution on the work of the Moderator’s Committee on Forms of Government
- Recommendation: NO ACTION on the resolution
You can read our detailed explanations here. We encourage you to reach out to your Town Meeting Members and encourage them to vote along with the B4E priority recommendations above. You can find the full list of Town Meeting Members (and their email addresses!) at this link. Many Town Meeting Members rarely hear from constituents, and genuinely want to consider their perspectives. Make sure to sign your name and address so they know you live in their precinct!
Contribute to Brookline’s Climate Action & Resiliency Plan (CARP)
The Town is currently developing a Climate Action and Resiliency Plan (CARP) and invites you to contribute your perspective by participating in an online survey (take the survey here!). The Town of Brookline Sustainability Division needs your input by June 6 to shape the plan’s strategies and priorities. This survey is a follow-up to a public forum in March (view the recording here and the slides here).
People Across Massachusetts Want More Housing
Our friends at Abundant Housing Massachusetts, along with MassINC, recently commissioned a survey to better understand how building new housing is perceived in the Commonwealth. The top line finding is that “strong majorities of Massachusetts voters support building more homes in their own communities — even when it means changes to neighborhood character or local decision-making.” These results show, once again, that “the loud opposition that often shows up at local planning meetings is actually a minority,” said Richard Parr, Senior Research Director at the MassINC Polling Group. Read more about the results of the poll here, or check out how the results are being understood more broadly from this piece in Banker & Tradesman.
Thanks and have a great week,
Jeff Wachter, on behalf of Brookline for Everyone