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The Winchester Select Board has appointed Planning Board member Brian Vernaglia to the town’s Affordable Housing Trust, placing a sitting land-use official on a board that recently sued the Planning Board over a downtown development and remains central to Winchester’s housing policy fights.
The board voted June 18 to fill two open seats on the trust, naming Caroline Staudt to the longer term and Vernaglia to the shorter term.
Staudt was appointed unanimously to a two-year term running through April 30, 2028. Paras Bhayani, Michelle Prior, Michael Bettencourt, Bill McGonigle and Anthea Brady all voted in favor.
Vernaglia was appointed to a one-year term running through April 30, 2027, on a 3-1 vote, with one abstention. Bhayani, McGonigle and Brady voted in favor, Bettencourt voted no and Prior abstained.
The appointment matters because the trust was one of several town bodies tangled in a court fight over the approved redevelopment at 10 Converse Place, also identified in town records as 33 Mount Vernon St.
The Affordable Housing Trust and three members of the Housing Partnership Board sued the Planning Board in April over its special permit decision for the five-story, 34-unit project.
Vernaglia, a Planning Board member, filed an Open Meeting Law complaint against the trust the same day.
That lawsuit has since been settled, but the broader conflict over housing authority, board coordination and affordable-housing payments has not disappeared.
The elephant in the room
Vernaglia was one of the Planning Board members named as defendants in the lawsuit, and he was the official who filed the Open Meeting Law complaint tied to the broader dispute. His move onto the trust means a former defendant in the litigation will now sit on a board that was a plaintiff.
The seat carries more weight than a routine committee appointment because the trust controls affordable-housing funds.
The 10 Converse Place project generated a $2 million payment in lieu of building affordable units on site, and the trust decides how such funds are spent to create or preserve affordable housing in town.
Questions about that money are closely tied to the project and to the larger debate over how Winchester applies its inclusionary-zoning rules.
The board interviewed four candidates for the two seats: Vernaglia, Staudt, John Healy and Michelle Bergstrom. Vernaglia, Stewart and Healy were interviewed June 15. Bergstrom was interviewed separately by Zoom on June 18 because of a scheduling conflict.
During his June 15 interview, Vernaglia framed his candidacy around two questions: why him and why now. He said Winchester has grown unaffordable and argued the trust can drive change because it has funding behind its work.
He also said a lack of communication among town boards contributed to the recent conflict, and that seating a Planning Board member on the trust would help the boards work together.
Asked whether the town should instead change the trust’s governing declaration to add a Planning Board seat, Vernaglia said that route was difficult because it would require approval from every trust member and a board majority, and that using an appointment was the more practical path.
Board members acknowledged the tension directly during the June 18 deliberations.
“We can’t ignore the elephant in the room with regard to the relationship between the Affordable Housing Trust, the Housing Partnership Board, the Planning Board and unfortunately, the Select Board,” Bhayani said.
Bhayani said members appeared to be weighing competing principles. Vernaglia is a sitting Planning Board member, while Bergstrom serves on the Housing Partnership Board, another body involved in the town’s housing debate.
“I think people are coming at this from competing principles,” Bhayani said.
Supporters of the appointment said putting a Planning Board member on the trust could improve coordination and communication between the two bodies, which both shape housing policy but have not shared a seat on the trust.
McGonigle, who seconded the motion to appoint Vernaglia, said the appointment could help repair the communication breakdowns that contributed to the recent conflict.
“Coordination between Planning Boards and Affordable Housing Trusts is something that’s done in many other communities,” McGonigle said.
He acknowledged concerns about sitting officials holding additional seats but said they were outweighed by the need “to start developing a better line of communication between the Planning Board and the Affordable Housing Trust.”
Dissenting viewpoints
Bettencourt opposed the appointment and instead favored Healy for the seat.
“Brian is in a position more than anyone on the Planning Board to impact affordable housing,” Bettencourt said. “I haven’t seen him take that opportunity, so I’m concerned with giving him more at the expense of a new volunteer.”
Prior abstained, saying her objection was based on principle rather than Vernaglia personally.
“If you’re elected to a position in this town, the Select Board shouldn’t appoint you to an at-large seat on another committee,” Prior said.
Prior said appointing sitting officials to at-large seats can crowd out new volunteers. She said she had taken a similar position when a sitting School Committee member was appointed to another committee.
“I like Brian. I know Brian. I think the world of the guy,” she said.
Xiyue Eric Han is a student at Winchester High School. He has been an intern with Winchester News since summer 2025.
Will Dowd is a Massachusetts journalist who covers municipal government and community life for Winchester News. He is also the founder and editor of The Marblehead Independent, a reader-funded digital newsroom.
