Manchester Planning Board Advances Senior Housing Bylaw Toward Town Meeting Warrant

MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA — January 29, 2026 — Manchester-by-the-Sea Planning Board moves closer to placing a senior housing zoning bylaw on the spring town meeting warrant. Planning Board member Chris Olney, who has championed the proposal for roughly five years, presented a draft bylaw that would allow age-restricted independent senior housing and assisted living facilities in any zoning district by special permit, capped at 10 units per acre and 16 units per site, with unit sizes limited to 1,200 square feet for two-bedroom units and 600 square feet for studios. One in every five units produced must be deed-restricted affordable and eligible for the state's Subsidized Housing Inventory. Olney noted that Manchester-by-the-Sea is the only North Shore community he is aware of without senior housing zoning, leaving approximately 1,500 local seniors — most in single-family homes — with no in-town option to downsize. A resident argued the special permit requirement would deter developers, but Town Planner Mark Resnick countered that the permit addresses site suitability in ways that site plan review cannot: "Special permit usually doesn't necessarily keep developers away — it's the rules that they have to follow where it makes it uneconomic." The Planning Board is scheduled to present the proposal to the Select Board on February 2 for warrant placement.