Donna Connors Running For Braintree Town Council

BRAINTREE, MA — Donna Connors has announced she's running to be Braintree's next District 3 Town Councilor. Connors, a former school PTO member and volunteer with the Braintree Youth Center, grew up in Braintee, and she owns a house Cedarcliff Road, which has been in her family for three generations.

The seat she's running for is currently held by Thomas Bowes, but with him entering the mayor race, there's expected to be a new face on the Town Council. She announced Monday she's running to be a voice for preserving Braintree's small town character in the face of proposed re-zoning.

"Braintree is at a major junction of either urbanization or maintaining our suburban bedroom community feel," Connors said in a statement. "We need to preserve its character and history while developing a community vision (Master Plan) of what we want it to be."

Connors said the entire town was "recently awakened" when almost 900 residents flooded town hall, many of whom protested a 160-page re-zoning ordinance and a Chapter 40R proposal, which would zone three districts near the Braintree MBTA station for "high density housing." According to Connors, the residents voices did slow down the plan, but the issue is still relevant now.

"It was a very close call and we narrowly stopped it," Connors said. "It is not a dead issue so we must stay vigilant. There should not be any rezoning or major development until the town’s Master Plan is updated to reflect the vision residents have for Braintree. Then and only then should the zoning ordinances that support the Master Plan be updated."

Connors mentioned several other issues in Braintree she said are important to her including:

• The proposed air compressor station at Fore River, which she said will affect East Braintree residents significantly if allowed to be installed.
• The Allen Street corridor (where the Braintree Electric Light Company was), which Connors said has been an eye sore, and will be sold in the near future for development.
• "The seemingly endless obstacles surrounding Captain Peterson’s will to build a pool/ice rink."
• Developing proper infrastructure to support the existing growth Braintree has already seen.
• School’s Safety and Security (Risk/Threat Assessments)

Connors volunteers in the community with youth soccer, the Braintree Youth Center, and fostering for local shelters and scouts. She has served on the PTO for Morrison and East Middle Schools. Donna currently works as the Chief Operating Officer for Northeast Ship Repair in Boston, MA where they dry-dock large vessels.