New Bedford Considers Big Changes North of Downtown

Change is in the air as New Bedford welcomes passenger rail service for the first time in decades. That change includes more than just trains.

The MBTA Communities Act requires 177 Massachusetts cities and towns, including New Bedford – so-called "MBTA Communities" – to establish zoning changes to provide for new multi-family housing units within a certain proximity to MBTA stations.

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities says failure to comply with the law "results in a loss of eligibility for the community, for certain funding programs."

New Bedford as an MBTA Community

New Bedford has two MBTA rail stations, the Church Street Station and New Bedford Stations, northeast of downtown. Both areas must comply with the MBTA Communities Act.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell's administration has proposed a zoning amendment to "spur development" around the downtown station.

City of New Bedford

"The proposed Clasky Common Transit-Oriented Development District establishes a transit-centric district in the area of Acushnet Avenue and Purchase Street just north of Downtown that encourages multi-family and mixed-used development in vacant and underutilized lots," according to the City.

The administration believes the zoning proposal would also spur new business development.

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The New Bedford City Council Committee on Ordinances could take up Mitchell's zoning proposal at its April meeting.

Committee chair Ryan Pereira has questions about the proposal.

"You have some tight streets, high density, and industry (especially the fishing area) currently existing," he said. "It's safe to say that most councilors will be questioning a lot of what the Planning Department has put forward."

Pereira also expects to be critical in his comments "towards all these state mandates surrounding the MBTA Communities Act, the Accessory Dwelling Unit mandate, and others in the pipeline that the state and governor (Gov. Maura Healey) are requiring U.S. cities to follow and no money to help us establish, plan, legal advice, etc."

"The state is way overreaching, in my opinion," Pereira said.

Councilor Ian Abreu, on the other hand, said the proposal for an overlay district "will encourage multifamily and mixed-use development in an area of our city that has unfortunately been plagued with vacant and underutilized lots for far too long."

Abreu said that the City Council's approval of the proposal "could greatly benefit various neighborhood pockets now ripe for new and exciting private sector investment around our Route 18/Purchase Street corridor, just to name a few."