Apartment Moratorium Fails At North Andover Town Meeting

NORTH ANDOVER, MA — North Andover voters rejected a proposed two-year ban on multi-family housing permits Thursday at the annual town meeting.

Most other articles passed relatively easily at the three-hour gathering on the high school football field, with most of the meeting's discussion devoted to the apartment moratorium.

One other article, citizen-petitioned like the apartment pause, failed, while another article was withdrawn.

The apartment permit moratorium was amended to clarify that it would only affect new buildings, rather than all permitted work on multi-family housing.

The article, number 32, received more than half of the vote but failed to get the required two-thirds supermajority. There were 330 votes in favor to 239 against, for a 58 percent margin.

The vote followed over an hour of heated discussion of the proposal.

Proponents of the article, including petitioner Joe Finn, argue the town needed to pause new housing construction while it studied the impact of more housing on school capacity, traffic, open spaces, water supply and more.

Opponents, including four of the five Select Board members and other town elected and appointed officials, argued that the ban would not stop 40B projects or commercial and retail development, but would prevent the construction of affordable housing for young families and older people.

The other article that failed was article 11, a request to ask the state for an additional package store liquor license at 550 Turnpike Street. It failed 235-281, with opponents arguing the town has too many liquor stores already.

Article 24, a transfer from Free Cash to the General Fund, was withdrawn.

The remainder of the articles, including the $112.8 million Fiscal Year 2022 budget, passed.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.