Jane Wallis Gumble – ‘Cooling-off period’

Homebuilders, Realtors and housing advocates were on Beacon Hill to protest more than 30 bills that would dramatically change the state’s anti-snob zoning law.

The Greater Boston Real Estate Board, the Home Builders Association of Massachusetts and Citizens Housing and Planning Association were among the groups that defended Chapter 40B – a law that directs communities to dedicate 10 percent of their housing stock to low-income people.

But the all-day hearing before the Joint Committee on Housing and Urban Development last week also drew dozens of local and state officials who said for-profit developers are unfairly using the law to steamroll through communities, constructing high-density developments at the expense of town services.

Under the law, developers who want to build affordable housing can get a comprehensive permit, allowing them to all but skip the local approval process, in communities where less than 10 percent of the housing is designated as affordable.

The proposed bills would do everything from reducing the affordable-housing requirement to 8 percent to changing what can be considered as affordable housing in communities seeking to reach the state’s mandated percentage.

Bills filed by Rep. Carol A. Donovan, D-Woburn, for example, would allow communities to count apartments and homes with Section 8 voucher holders and group homes for the mentally retarded and mentally ill as affordable.

The Joint Committee on Housing and Urban Development will have an executive session to discuss these and other bills Wednesday.

Edwin J. Shanahan, GBREB’s chief executive officer, said last week’s hearing underscored the need for laws like Chapter 40B.

“You heard towns that wanted to present themselves as poorer towns saying the wealthy towns can afford to develop affordable housing but that they couldn’t,” Shanahan said. “You basically had NIMBYism,” he said, referring to a not-in-my-backyard attitude.

While everyone acknowledges the state’s housing crisis, there are still efforts to halt housing production, and the proposed bills are a prime example, Shanahan said.

“Chapter 40B is one of the few vehicles that allows the housing producer to develop a product that we need to meet the demand,” he said.

Shanahan took issue with town leaders who criticized big real estate developers. He said private development companies have the expertise to solve the affordable housing crisis.

“Nonprofit developers are not going to solve this alone,” he said.

Several state leaders said they want to help communities that feel powerless when faced with deep-pocket developers who are abusing the law.

Under the law, developers who plan to sell 25 percent of their units at below market-rate prices can win approval for their projects from the state instead of local boards.

Jane Wallis Gumble, director of the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development, proposed several ways to assist communities – including capping the size of large-scale developments.

She also proposed a six-month “cooling-off period,” basically requiring developers to wait six months before filing a comprehensive permit if their original plans for market-rate housing are rejected.

This would prevent developers from using the law to threaten communities with larger proposals if their original plan doesn’t pass, she said.

Gumble, who does not support any of the bills, said many communities need assistance and must realize they have a “right to say no” to large developments that don’t fit into their overall planning.

Gumble’s testimony came after representatives from Woburn and Georgetown pleaded with lawmakers to change a law they say has allowed for-profit developers to “hammer” their towns with dense developments.

In Woburn, a developer wants to put 640 apartments on 75 acres, and Georgetown has faced three comprehensive permit projects this year, one of which would add more than 300 units in an industrial park.

Some of the plans surfaced after the developers’ original proposals were rejected.

‘Shift the Power’
Many of the smaller towns don’t have planners or set guidelines to follow and lack the resources to do battle with large real estate development firms, said William G. “Buzz” Constable, a real estate investor and president of the Massachusetts Association of Regional Planning Agencies.

Constable said something had to be done to “shift the power” from developers to communities.

But Gumble and others defended the law, saying 25,000 affordable housing units have been created in 172 communities since Chapter 40B was passed in 1969.

Only 24 communities have achieved the 10 percent goal, and another 63 communities would comply if they added 100 or fewer affordable homes or apartments, Gumble said.

“Certainly, people would have preferred to see faster growth,” she said.

CHAPA, another big supporter of the law, says the number of communities with no subsidized housing fell from 173 to 54 since Chapter 40B was enacted.

Some lawmakers said Chapter 40B doesn’t need to be gutted, just tweaked to give a boost to communities that are doing their part, while at the same sending a clear message to other towns that aren’t doing enough to house lower-income families.

Sen. Marc R. Pacheco, D-Taunton, wants to count manufactured housing, or mobile homes, as affordable – particularly if they’re rent-restricted units. A bill filed by Rep. Harriett L. Stanley, D-Merrimac, and co-sponsored Rep. Marie J. Parente, D-Milford, would allow towns and cities to do that.

Pacheco said communities like Raynham in Southeastern Massachusetts should get credit for trying to develop housing – including mobile homes with deed restrictions – that is affordable to low-income people.

Most of the Bristol County communities Pacheco represents haven’t updated zoning rules and don’t have comprehensive building plans, he said. As a consequence, those communities are experiencing uncontrolled growth, Pacheco said.

But Barnstable Town Manager John Klimm, who spoke in favor of Chapter 40B, said recalculating how the state counts affordable housing units won’t do anything to create more housing for low-income people.

Other state leaders said it’s time for towns that haven’t been creating affordable housing to pitch in.

Parente said towns that have already ensured that 5 to 10 percent of their housing stock is affordable shouldn’t be forced to accept more projects until towns with no low-income housing do more to create such units.

“We have to … save the communities that are doing something,” she said.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who urged lawmakers to reject all acts that would “water down” Chapter 40B, said suburban communities must do more.

He also recommended creating an agency that would help towns that don’t have the resources to do planning for affordable housing.

“Watering down the anti-snob law is not a solution. It’s a dodge,” he said.