MILTON VOTERS who in February rejected a rezoning plan developed to comply with the MBTA Communities Act returned to the polls on Tuesday and gained control of a key town board by ousting the chair and replacing him with one of their own.
According to unofficial results, John Keohane defeated the incumbent Michael Zullas by 122 votes – 3,434 to 3,312. Zullas was the only member of the five-person Select Board up for reelection.
Keohane’s election to the Select Board suggests opposition to the MBTA Communities Act is not dissipating in Milton, a community just south of Boston. The vote would appear to give opponents of the state’s rezoning law narrow control of the Select Board as the town prepares for a court fight with Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who is asking the Supreme Judicial Court to force the town to come into compliance.
Meredith Hall, the chair of the town’s Planning Board, which has slow-walked efforts to develop a rezoning plan, held on to her seat. She fended off a challenge from Matt Morong, who had been one of the leaders of the effort to pass the town’s original rezoning bylaw. Hall won by nearly 1,000 votes – 3,712 to 2,724.
On his campaign website, Keohane steered clear of any discussion of the MBTA Communities Act. During a candidates forum on April 10, however, he raised concerns about the many homes the rezoning would theoretically make possible and the impact those homes would have on schools and traffic.
He also indicated the state improperly classified Milton as a “rapid transit” community, a designation that requires the municipality to zone for a potential capacity of 2,461 housing units, or 25 percent of the current housing stock.
“It’s clear we must fight for reclassification,” Keohane said.
Denny Swenson submitted a letter to the editor of the Milton Times supporting the candidacy of Keohane, whom she described as her co-leader in the fight against the rezoning bylaw.
“The Select Board has five members, and the Select Board majority is empowered to set the direction of the town’s MBTA Communities Zoning litigation,” Swenson said in her letter. “Today, there are three active ‘YES Vote’ advocates on the Select Board making up the majority. With the upcoming Select Board election, the direction the town’s lawyers will receive in the MBTA litigation going forward hangs in the balance. On April 30, will it stay in the hands of those who led the “YES Vote” campaign? Or will John Keohane be there representing all citizens and committed to the mandate recently set by townwide vote?”
Zullas provided the decisive third vote on the five-member panel when the original rezoning bylaw was approved and sent along to Town Meeting. Town Meeting approved the bylaw, but that vote was set aside when voters rejected it by a margin of 54-46 during a special election in February.
Since the special election, Zullas said he has tried to follow the will of the voters. He helped hire attorneys to represent the town in its legal fight with Campbell and recently provided the swing third vote in favor of asking Gov. Maura Healey and other state officials to return grant funds that had been withheld since the town fell into noncompliance with the law.
In an interview last week, Zullas said Milton would fight Campbell in court and then abide by whatever the Supreme Judicial Court decides on the MBTA Communities Act. ”This is the highest court in the state,” he said. “I think the decision will provide some finality.”
Zullas served 14 years in various town positions, including six years on the Select Board. Keohane, by contrast, has never held office before.