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Local Action Log

LWVN Supports Updates to Accessory Apartment Ordinance

On October 13, 2022, LWVN sent a letter to the City Council expressing its support for proposed updates to the Accessory Apartment Ordinance.  These changes will amend the Accessory Apartment Ordinance originally adopted in December 2017, which allows homeowners to create an accessory apartment, as of right, within the main residence.

The proposed updates are primarily intended to address the two things that were not adopted five years ago by allowing:
1. The building of detached accessory apartments, by-right, up to 900 sf in size (these will continue to conform with other rules for accessory buildings).
2. The creation of an accessory apartment in a newly built home, thus eliminating the requirement that the main residence be at least four years old before an accessory apartment can be built.

You can read the entirety of LWVN’s letter below.

LWVN Letter in Support of Changes to Accessory Apartments

LWVN Joins U-CHAN on Follow-Up Petition to the Mayor Regarding the Use of ARPA Funds for Housing Needs

On April 22, 2022, LWVN wrote to the Mayor to join U-CHAN (Uniting Citizens for Housing Affordability in Newton) in recommending that the Mayor (i) set aside of $10 million in ARPA funds as a grant to non-profit developers to purchase site(s) and/or buildings that have the potential to provide no less than 12 units of housing, most of which should be for families with annual incomes below 30% of AMI, and (ii) allocate a multi-year grant of $1 million to a Newton community-based organization with a goal to create a program to deliver comprehensive services to individual households facing instability.

In September, as a follow-up to LWVN’s April letter, LWVN joined a number of non-profits, including a number of Newton non-profits and over 50 individuals who signed U-CHAN’s follow-up petition to the Mayor.

These recommendations are aligned with LWV national, state and local positions supporting programs and policies that meet basic human needs and address affordable housing needs.

Read the entirety of the letter below:

Follow-Up Petition on Use of ARPA Funds

LWVN Affiliates with Our Homes, Our Votes

The Board of the LWVN voted to join as an affiliate with Our Homes, Our Votes, a campaign under the umbrella of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.  The Our Homes, Our Votes campaign provides various tools to assist organizations working to engage low-income renters in the upcoming elections.

Joining the coalition of organizations affiliated with Our Homes, Our Votes helps promote the goals of the LWV and is in accordance with the LWVN’s Coalition Policy.

Read the letter dated August 3, 2022, from President Marcia Johnson, informing the Board of the action taken to formally affiliate with Our Homes, Our Votes and why that action aligns with the positions of the LWVN on housing and voting rights.

LWVN Joins with Our Homes Our Votes Action

LWVN Board Concurs with Newton Citizens Commission on Energy’s Memo Rejecting Newton Cemetery’s Tree Removal Request

On June 24, 2022, LWVN sent an email to Mayor Fuller expressing our our agreement with the Newton Citizens Commission on Energy (NCCE)’s memo of June 20th stating “We are writing to you regarding the Newton Cemetery’ request for exemption from the Tree Preservation Ordinance. We urge you to stand with the Director of Urban Forestry in denying that request and any waiver of its consequences. We also urge you to ask the City Council to revise the ordinance language to clarify their intent that the Tree Preservation Ordinance not exclude any property owners from its provisions.”

Read the full NCCE memo here.

See below for President Marcia Johnson’s memo to the LWVN Board notifying it of this action and the reasons for taking it.

06.24.22 Letter to Board re Cemetery Tree Removal Action

 

LWVN Signs on To Petition Supporting Funding for Early Education and Child Care

On June 12, 2022, LWVN signed on to the Common Start Coalitions’ Petition calling on state legislators from both the House and Senate to maximize funding in this year’s state budget for early education and child care contemplated in An Act to Expand Access to High-Quality, Affordable Early Education and Care, H.4795/S.2883. If the State Legislature passes this bill and the Governor signs, it will greatly improve the Commonwealth’s early education and child care system, ensuring high-quality early education and child care that is affordable and accessible for all families.

Read more information on the Common Start Coalition.

See President Marcia Johnson’s memo to the LWVN Board notifying it of this action and the reasons for taking it.

LWVN Signs on to Childcare Advocacy Action

LWVMA Supports Funding for Early Education and Child Care

LWVMA is also supporting funding for early education and child care in this year’s state budget and providing affordable and accessible high quality early education and childcare in Massachusetts is a LWVMA priority bill that was featured at Day on the Hill. See League testimony here and fact sheet here.

Take Action Now

Please contact your legislators to ask them to encourage the Legislature’s budget conference committee to include the new early education and child care funding from both the House AND Senate budgets in their final conference budget. If the priorities of both chambers make it into the final budget, it would represent a substantial step toward implementing our full vision of a high-quality early education and childcare system that is affordable and accessible for all families.

Please call or email your state Senator and Representative; leave a voice message. Find your legislator’s contact information here.

Here is a suggested script:

I’m a member of the League of Women Voters of ________ and a constituent. I am contacting you about the Common Start early education and childcare funding provisions that are part of the House and Senate budget bills now in the budget conference committee. I am asking you to urge the Legislature’s budget conference committee to include the new early education and child care funding from both the House AND Senate budgets in their final conference budget, to advance the vision of a high-quality early education and childcare system that is affordable and accessible for all families in Massachusetts.

Thank you!

(Your name and your street address)