Marissa Vogt

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Brookline Town Meeting Member in Precinct 6 focusing on equity and transparency & Library Trustee. Mother, wife, planetary space physicist at BU. MIT '06, UCLA PhD. She/her.
Twitterhttps://twitter.com/vogt4brookline

Happy Election Day, Brookline! 🗳️

Thank you to everyone running - volunteering to lead our community at this moment in history is a huge responsibility. I’m grateful for the right to vote for folks I think will best uphold our values & protect us from the hate & chaos coming from the federal government

Brookline residents - it's time to think about running for Town Meeting! You have until March 18 to obtain nomination papers from the Town Clerk and get 10 signatures from registered voters in your precinct. Our schools are facing an $8 million budget gap and last year Town Meeting somewhat narrowly defeated a modest upzoning proposal. We need education and housing advocates to run -- individuals & groups like Brookline for Everyone will be here to help guide you!

Here's the final table showing the results of all warrant articles from the fall
#BrooklineTownMeeting. Voting records are here: https://www.brooklinema.gov/DocumentCenter/View/53579/November-2024-Nights-1-3-Votes

Thanks to Moderator Neil Wishinsky for making these sorts of tables that are helpful for TMMs and the public!

Night 2 of #BrooklineTownMeeting is underway!

The Moderator kicked things off with news that a 4th edition of "Town Meeting Time", the book that outlines Town Meeting procedures (sort of like a TM version of Robert's Rules of Order), is coming soon from the Massachusetts Moderators Association.

The first zoning article of the night, WA 7, was narrowly referred to the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee (124-122-5). I voted against referral because this article stops us from addressing our urgent housing affordability crisis. Setting a 2.5 story limit also makes it illegal to build more buildings like this, which faced a partial demolition & was deemed "historically or architecturally significant":

#BrooklineTownMeeting is finally getting started after some technical delays.

Here’s a guide to the warrant articles we’re discussing: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fuSH7ekOHo_PsAGsdHK0-hUe4f4KcRkv0ix1NKVMGrE/edit?usp=sharing

We’re starting with WA 3, which appropriates $160k in funding that we get from Uber/Lyft rides.

November2024_Town MeetingWAs

Warrant Article (WA) Guide November 2024 Annual Town Meeting Compiled by Bonnie Bastien Town Meeting Member in Precinct 5 Clickable Table of Contents: Useful Definitions 1 November 2024 - Warrant Articles 4 Useful Definitions Town Meeting (TM) - Brookline is a town, not a city. We h...

Google Docs
Saw this feathered friend near Gateway East / Brookline Village today!

* WA 9: Allows a third unit by right in existing two-family zones (keeping all other building requirements like allowable height, floor area ratio, setbacks, etc.)

* WA 14: Allows separate ownership (e.g. condos) of multiple buildings on the same lot by applying the same setback exceptions that currently exist for rental properties

* WA 15: Updates the ADU requirements to comply with the recently-passed Affordable Homes Act

(2/3)

#BrooklineTownMeeting begins tomorrow night, with lots of proposed changes to our zoning bylaws. Here's a map showing which areas would be affected by each article.

* WA 7: Restricts building height to 2.5 stories (effectively requiring that any third story has a sloped, not flat, roof)
* WA 8: Waives the minimum lot size requirement for adding a unit to some single-family homes

(1/3)

The fall #BrooklineTownMeeting begins in one week from tonight! Here are screenshots of the agenda.

Read more in the "Combined Reports", which includes the proposed legislation ("warrant articles") including any amendments, & recommendations from town committees: https://www.brooklinema.gov/DocumentCenter/View/53319/Combined-Reports-November-2024-Special-Town-Meeting?bidId=