I’m looking for a new Planning Board member who is decisive, but who also examines many points of view and all of the facts before choosing his policy position.
Tom showed me these qualities in 2023 when Town Meeting deliberated on ways to address the state’s MBTA requirement. He wanted more housing, and more affordable housing, but was not sure of the best way to achieve the goal.
He was also thinking in a very practical way: What was the solution that would pass Town Meeting and be acceptable to voters? He joined the team led by Dawn McKenna, which offered a substitute motion to Town Meeting the week before Article 34 was considered in its original form. Dawn’s amendment did not pass—but to give that group credit, their intention to slow down the rollout was well-placed.
Tom went on to vote in favor of Article 34, which passed by a large margin. Since then, like many of us, he is taken aback by the astonishingly rapid submission of development proposals, which have come so early and in such numbers that we have already, almost met the MBTA’s goal of 1,231 new homes in our town. I will be happy if we meet that goal, and other MBTA communities can play their part for the rest of a solution.
What I remember fondly about Tom’s participation in that process was that he never claimed to have all the answers. He was advocating, but also learning. He was not taking an ideological approach to the housing challenge. Those qualities make him the right candidate for the Planning Board.