March 22, 2009

Boston Globe Story on a 40B project

Must read, click here.

Very interesting story about the Town of Easton and their battle with a low income housing developer. To be honest it does not seem like a bad project to me. The developer is proposing 28 cottages at two different locations with 7 being sold at a reduced price to low mod income buyers.

What amazes me is how the Town of Easton has battled this. That has been my point recently. Why spend time and money battling in a town like Easton, when you can come to Worcester, where you can not even build under the protection of 40B.

Under 40B, the town has far less leverage. The board of appeals could deny Mirrione's application, but he could then appeal to the state and would likely win. That's because under the law, at least 10 percent of a town's housing units must be permanently set aside for low- to moderate-income residents before it can safely deny a 40B project; Easton's stock of affordable housing barely tops 3 percent.

On the other hand, Worcester is somewhere in the 15-18 ranges, way about the 10 percent. In other words, a developer in Worcester can not go through 40B. It really makes no difference since do not oppose any projects and give them whatever they want.

As more developers run into problems in towns liks Easton or in Springfield, they will flock to Worcester.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bill, I read a piece in T&G months ago & after reading it I walked away w/the "impression" that the 10% figure could be appplied on a regional basis..........so if the combined worc, paxton, holden w boylston, shrewsbury area (for example) was under 10%........then they could still build in Worc under 40B?????.............as I said that was my impression.

This whole 40B has to be revisted......i wonder what other states have for law re thisissue ........ problem is we send too much money to washington.......this would never happen if we had local control of thsi NO LO issue

BTW yew fibbed yesterday ....!!!!! ewe said no more NO LO blogs for a month?????..........but that's OK..................Father will hear your confession next Saturday at 400 pm [g]......

At least in these towns the density of constr of NO LO is no where near what it is in Worc........take Worc Comm Gr's project at May & Main sts.....42 units on what.......1.5 acres??????...god you'd need 1.5 acres just to meet the req'd parking