All Medford residents are impacted by the City Council and Community Development Board's plans to rush a city-wide "upzoning" into law. The plans reduce minimum lot sizes, reduce side yard setbacks, increase the number of stories, and increase the number of dwelling units per property. This upzoning will help property owners who want to sell for more to developers and move out of Medford, it will help renters who want more luxury apartments, but it will put money in developer's and absentee landlord's pockets, and it will decrease the quality of life for the homeowners who want to stay in Medford.

Before going further we urge the City Council to:

1. Include a comprehensive outreach effort to ensure all residents are aware of the planned changes.
2. Present one plan at a time for residents to review. Present the planned zones as a single map and proposal for residents to see the potential impact of adjacent residential, square, and corridor zones.
3. Make a commitment to adjust the proposal by neighborhood after listening to residents' concerns.
4. Provide researched and well-founded reasons for the upzoning, not ideologies. Provide proof the upzoning will benefit residents and not just put money in the pockets of developers to build luxury units. 
5. Before submitting plans to the public, submit to all City Departments to evaluate the plans and estimate the increased crowding, traffic, costs of services, and cost of new infrastructure.
6. Address why we are proposing residential upzoning when 1) Medford has already done our part for affordable housing by allowing "in-law" rental units before the State mandate, and 2) for public transportation, has already facilitated the development of well over 6000 units near the Wellington Circle rapid transit, with many more units proposed and on the way.
7. Address the transition process that will take place throughout the residential neighborhoods over the next decade. How will building new three-story multi-family structures on small lots impact residents who wish to stay in their existing single- and two-family homes next door? Address how the seven- to nine-story apartment complexes will impact residents next to or inside the planned square and corridor zones?
8. Address the impact of three-story and taller structures, five feet from property lines, on the existing, expensive solar systems on many of Medford's 2 1/2 story homes.