Framingham Council Moves Apartment Moratorium Forward

FRAMINGHAM, MA — The Framingham City Council on Tuesday held a public hearing on whether to ban multifamily development in the city for up to nine months. The event revealed broad support for the idea among elected leaders, but only a handful of citizens spoke during the hearing.

The so-called apartment moratorium has been talked about for a long time in Framingham, but was brought to Council for a public hearing early in 2020 by Councilor Christine Long. Those who support the idea say that the city needs to pause multifamily development to study how apartments are contributing to traffic, and if families living in apartments are overwhelming the school district.

According to Long, nine multifamily projects have received building permits since 2016, all but two in the downtown area. In total, those projects would add about 1,400 units in Framingham. Some of the biggest developments, like the Modera building along Waverly, or the Bancroft Building, have not opened yet.

Jack's Abby co-founder Jack Hendler was the first to speak during the hearing. He opposed the moratorium, telling Councilors that he moved his brewery to Framingham because he liked the city's plan for a transit-oriented downtown. The moratorium would "derail momentum" downtown, he said.

"We believed in the dream about what was trying to be recreated in downtown Framingham," he said. "I'm very concerned we could lose a lot of that progress we've seen."

School Committee Chair Adam Freudberg said during the hearing that every 100 apartments adds about 15 students in the district. He urged the Council adopt the moratorium, citing concern about costs related to rising enrollment.

Planning Board Chair Kristina Johnson also spoke at the hearing. She did not explicitly oppose the moratorium, but did say that conducting a traffic study right now might be misleading due to slowdowns related to coronavirus.

"It's going to be a long time before we see the type of traffic patterns again," she said.

Councilors appeared largely supportive of the idea, although some had concerns about the moratorium — like whether a ban on new duplexes should be included, and whether condominium developments should be excluded.

Council Chair George King said he didn't want to see "millions" more apartments built, but felt that the moratorium might send a mixed-message about what the city is trying to achieve downtown.

In the end, the Council voted unanimously to send the issue to the Planning Board, which will have to hold its own public hearing on the moratorium within 14 days.