Call to curb development falters

Homeowners turn out to oppose 'down-zoning'

Bill Powell (left) and Martin Rosenthal in front of a condo complex at 121 Centre St. that replaced a Victorian house similar to the two next to it. Powell wrote and Rosenthal backed a ''down-zoning'' measure that was rejected by Town Meeting. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

This time last year, there was talk of a turning point in the town's attitude toward zoning and development.

After many years of dispute, the roughly 240-member Town Meeting had decided to protect 18 smaller buildings on North Brookline streets that were zoned for multifamily buildings, garnering support along the way even from the selectmen, a board that had been more prodevelopment.

But this month's Town Meeting was different. Despite passionate arguments from several neighborhood activists, a proposal to "down-zone" 12 houses with lawns, to prevent their becoming apartment buildings of six or more units, was voted down after several of the owners or their representatives showed up to argue against the change.

"The Slater family never got a written notice or a phone call about the proposed rezoning" of their property at 134 Babcock St., their lawyer, Douglas Jones, told the meeting. He and others argued that when the town considers changing zoning on just a few buildings, it shouldn't be too difficult to reach out to the owners, and that such notice would be the right and fair thing to do.

The argument persuaded enough Town Meeting members for the measure to be defeated. A zoning article needs approval by a two-thirds majority of Town Meeting voters; the threshold was no more than 80 in opposition, and 91 members voted against the rezoning.

"Our strategy was miscalculated," said Martin Rosenthal, a lifelong neighborhood resident who supported the down-zoning. "We failed to point out that the 'hardship' these very nice people faced was not being able to sell to a developer at a megaprofit."

Property owner Greg Rogers saw the vote differently.

"Any time you can get over the 'I want things the way they used to be,' you are doing well," he said.

The late-night vote Nov. 19 followed hours of vehement argument, with those wanting to preserve what they called the neighborhood's only open space - the lawns and gardens of smaller homes - opposed by the Planning Board and affected property owners.

"The Coolidge Corner neighborhood is under attack," argued Kevin Lang, an economist and member of the school board. "Brookline is the ninth most dense community in Massachusetts, and this is the densest neighborhood in Brookline."

But Planning Board chairman Kenneth Goldstein noted that his members believe the down-zoning proposal was unfair and overreaching, and called the selection of the 12 properties "cherry picking."

Slightly less contentious, but nonetheless hotly debated, was the issue of what to do about what Town Meeting member Jonathan Margolis called "implements of the devil," leaf blowers.

Town Meeting was offered two methods to regulate the devices: a reworking of the noise bylaw, which a volunteer committee had spent two years hammering out, and a more recent idea to restrict the months and times when leaf blowers could be used.

In addition to a slideshow introducing the characters "Brookline Bob" and "Larry and Leon Leafblower" to illustrate the science of decibel levels, proponents of the leaf-blower restrictions pulled out their heaviest weapons - 6-inch binders of data. Sometimes using sharp rhetoric, those favoring rakes and brooms over blowers pointed to carbon emissions, oil imports, and air pollution - not to mention the sheer unneighborliness of blowing one's detritus onto nearby lawns.

But perhaps in deference to the amount of work involved in the noise ordinance, Town Meeting overwhelmingly passed just the noise bylaw revisions. These will require leaf blowers to be tested to determine their decibel levels. Leaf blowers over 67 decibels will not be allowed, while those under that limit will get a sticker, so that enforcing agents can quickly identify them as being in compliance.

The bylaw also restricts leaf-blowing, operation of loud repair equipment, and drum playing to certain hours, depending on the source of the noise. Town-operated equipment is exempt - although future purchases of leaf blowers will seek to comply with the bylaw, according to Fred Lebow, an engineer who worked on the revisions.

The fines were also increased - from $50 for a first offense up to $200 a day for the third or higher offense.

The article that would have allowed the use of leaf blowers only from March to May and from September to December was narrowly defeated, 111 to 105.