The need is clear: Massachusetts requires more affordable housing, but projects aren’t being built fast enough – and the sometimes brutal approval process leaves many a bruised municipality in its wake.
A 2014 Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) report says the need for affordable housing –defined as housing for families earning less than the area median income – is strong in the Bay State and only getting stronger.
In 1980, Massachusetts’ home prices were near the national average, but since then, they’ve grown faster than any other state in the union, according to the report.
Worse, more than a million Baby Boomers are projected to leave the state’s workforce by 2030 and there aren’t enough current residents to fill those jobs. Nor is there enough housing available for new residents.
40B, 40R And 40S
The state law known as Chapter 40B allows a developer to bypass local zoning and build higher-density developments if the housing stock in the community is not at least 10 percent affordable. In 2004, the state passed the lesser-known Chapters 40R and 40S. Chapter 40R encourages cities and towns to zone for compact residential and mixed-use development in “smart growth” locations by offering financial incentives and control over design. Chapter 40S deals with payments from the state to the municipalities incenting them to create 40R districts.
The town of Lynnfield created a 40R district called Market Street, a mixed-use residential, office space and retail development on the site of the former Colonial Golf Course. Richard Tisei, co-owner of Northrup Real Estate in Lynnfield, said it has become a selling point for the town.
“Market Street has been a win-win for Lynnfield,” Tisei said. “Aside from expanding the communities tax base it also helped diversify the housing stock in the community.”
Tisei said his office has worked with clients who chose to rent an apartment in the Market Street development while searching for their dream home in Lynnfield.
Gary Anderson, Easton’s town planner, said just about every municipality would prefer a 40R development, where the town has control and receives state compensation, to a 40B, where the municipality has less control over the project and receives no payment from the state.
However, just 27 40R districts have been created in Massachusetts to date, largely because they require time, money and community support.
Easton approved a 40R zone in 2008. Queset Woods, a 280-unit development with 98 affordable units and 116,000 square feet of commercial space, is nearing completion near the campus of Stonehill College. The mixed-use development is to expected to generate over $2 million in new revenue for Easton in the first 10 years of operation.
“For the most part, it’s been a positive for the town,” Anderson said. “Because it isn’t done, I’m hesitant to say it’s been a grand slam, but at some point, it will be.”
Anderson said that upfront payments and reimbursements also made 40R zones more attractive, adding that the town has a 290-unit project that is “significantly along the permitting process” that will bring Easton’s affordable housing stock over 10 percent threshold, protecting the town from any unwanted 40B proposals.
“The development is a ‘friendly’ 40B, which goes along with the town’s strategy of working with developers,” he said.
A Cautionary Tale
Paul Halkiotis, director of Planning and Economic Development in Norwood, said the town has experience with both 40Rs and 40Bs. In fact, it zoned one of the first 40R districts in the commonwealth in 2006. In 2014, Norwood approved its second 40R project. Initially proposed at 100 units, it was eventually pared it down to 40 units. Construction has already begun.
Across the street from that development is another old, run-down manufacturing facility called the Plimpton Press. A 300-unit 40R project was recently proposed for the site that would have put the town over the 10 percent threshold, protecting it from being forced to accept any future 40B developments.
“Some abutters objected to the project and campaigned hard against it,” Halkiotis said.
The town’s planning board and board of selectmen supported the project. A majority of Town Meeting members voted in favor – but not the two-thirds needed to change the zoning, and the project failed.
That may turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory for the abutters. The owners of the property currently have a purchase and sale agreement with a developer who Halkiotis expects will soon apply for a permit to build a 216-unit 40B affordable housing development.
In the meantime, a different developer has proposed another 300-unit 40B development in another part of town. That proposal was denied by the zoning board of appeals last week and will likely be appealed by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). Because Norwood didn’t approve the 300-unit Plimpton Press 40R project, the town now faces the prospect of two 40B developments totaling 516 units.
Paul Keady, a Realtor and a Norwood native, said more than 50 percent of the housing in Norwood is already rentals and that it strains the real estate market.
“Norwood has cheap utilities and cheap taxes compared to other communities,” Keady said. “Plus, you’ve got the train. That makes it a great place to build apartments.”
Town services like schools, roads and police and fire departments are used by everyone, but paid for largely by real estate taxes. He said since renters outnumber owners, services get strained, which can result in larger school class sizes and lower test scores. He said homebuyers with school-aged kids notice that and many who can afford to will look elsewhere.
“People look at class size and scores and decide to look at other towns, like Westwood, for the schools,” Keady said. “A lot of them move back to Norwood after their kids graduate.”
A Third Path
According to the DHCD, four municipalities in the commonwealth have considered creating a 40R zone, but ultimately decided not to. One of them is Melrose. At 7.6 percent, Melrose is three-quarters of the way to meeting the state’s affordable housing requirement.
Denise Gaffey is Melrose’s city planner. Gaffey said Melrose doesn’t receive many 40B proposals, so the city didn’t feel the need to create a 40R zone to defend itself against them. Instead, the Melrose board of aldermen approved their own 15.5-acre “smart growth” district within walking distance of buses and the Oak Grove MBTA station in 2008. It encourages mixed-use, preserving historic properties and requires that 10 percent of the units built there be affordable in perpetuity.
“We primarily hope to see residential and mixed-use developments there,” Gaffey said. “We contemplated doing it as a 40R, but didn’t because the aldermen didn’t want to cede control of local zoning to DHCD and 40Rs require a higher percentage of affordable housing.”
Two developments have already created 39 units of affordable housing in the zone so far.