Councillor Corner: Waltham's Councillor-At-Large Tom Stanley

Feb. 2—To better understand the goals of the Waltham City Council this year, The Waltham News Tribune has created a new series called, "Councillor Corner" which will be a 15-week feature that will showcase each city councillor's plans for 2021. Each councillor has been asked the same questions.

Below is the second installment. The interviewed has been edited for clarity and length.

What are the most pressing issues of your ward/territory?

Waltham faces many challenges in 2021 but the imperative priority for city government is to continue to address the health care and economic problems created by the COVID-19 crisis. The coronavirus has adversely affected our community health and well-being, our local businesses, our schools and our ability to function normally. We must do whatever possible to help get the coronavirus under control and to relieve the financial pressure on businesses and families struggling to survive in this crisis.

Working collaboratively with state and local agencies, community groups and organizations, we must utilize our resources to ensure COVID-19 testing is available and the vaccine is distributed, support local businesses and restore jobs, keep food banks adequately supplied, assist educators and students learning efforts and stop housing evictions.

The challenge is great but imperative if we hope to make 2021 a better year for everyone.

What are the projects or initiatives that you're most excited about working on or tackling this year?

Waltham needs more permanent affordable housing to meet the demands of the coming decade. During 2020, I chaired the ad-hoc committee on housing that recommended solutions to address the city's housing situation.

I strongly support Waltham's goal to expand on the City's considerable housing efforts by developing a long-term plan utilizing multiple strategies to achieve effective affordable housing policy to address housing issues now and into the future.

I welcome the opportunity to work on implementing many of the committee's recommendations. The City needs a two-part strategy with one part meeting the current housing emergency caused by the general shortage of affordable housing and the eviction risks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the other part providing permanent affordable housing.

To achieve these goals we need to increase funding resources to meet current housing needs and new initiatives. This means post pandemic allocations of 5% of building permits to generate roughly $340,000 annually to be dedicated to the Municipal Housing Trust Fund. It also means adopting the optional 3% community impact fee on short term rentals (not hotels) to be dedicated to the MHTF. Neither of these options draws additional revenue from Waltham residents.

We must use city ordinances to require large developers to incorporate racially and economically diverse neighborhood planning in their projects. We must address rising costs of home ownership that make it harder for seniors to maintain residences in the city. We must increase stock of affordable senior housing available.

We should remove current zoning restrictions that inhibit Waltham's ability to create more affordable housing, specifically: the Fernald property, the Governor's Housing Choice Initiative and accessory housing. We need to create more permanent affordable apartments by permitting accessory apartments.

We need to bring the many "illegal" apartments in the city into conformance with ordinances. They are often unsafe because they are not inspected and up to building code standards. Additionally, because Waltham is in the MBTA service area, we can seek to secure available grants for multi-family housing.

I encourage all Waltham citizens to read the full report of the ad-hoc affordable housing committee report available on line at City of Waltham website.

Citizen opinions and comments are welcome.

What are your goals for 2021 as a councillor?

In addition to the COVID response and housing initiatives, I intend to focus on keeping the new Waltham High School construction on track to completion. I also want to see completion of the new fire station on Moody Street and serious movement toward constructing a new police station with a site certain.

I am also interested in revisiting the possibility a regional sustainability center at the Waltham Fields Farm property. This year can be used to gage interest from both advocates and city officials.

Transportation is important to Waltham. I am supportive of the state efforts to electrify the Boston to Waltham to Fitchburg rail service. Modernizing this service brings both economic and environmental benefits.

My most important overriding goal as a councillor in 2021 is to help Waltham and all the people who live and work here make it through what has been a most difficult time.

Waltham is a resilient community and together we will meet these challenges and prepare for a stronger, healthier and happier future.

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