The Planning Office of Urban Affairs, the affordable housing development arm of the Boston Archdiocese, and JGE Architecture + Development have teamed up to build 217 affordable housing units on a Roxbury site made up of publicly-owned land and land owned by the Archdiocese of Boston. Image courtesy of JGE Architecture and The Architectural Team
The House plans to vote Wednesday on a $425.1 million economic development package that carries over some of Gov. Maura Healey’s priorities while adding a slew of new housing-related policy ideas.
The House Ways and Means Committee polled a new version (H. 5562) of the bill that Healey filed in response to heightened competition in some of the state’s most prized industries, and leadership said the plan is to take it up in a formal session Wednesday.
Economic development bills are a regular feature of an even-year July on Beacon Hill, but this time around lawmakers only need to get it into conference committee talks by July 31 rather than trying to pass a compromise version by then. Healey, who stands for reelection this fall, is likely eager for a bill to reach her desk sooner rather than later.
“The reforms included in this bill will help to expand the Commonwealth’s housing supply, safeguard critical institutions and jobs, attract new investments, and position Massachusetts for long-term economic success. We look forward to discussing these important investments and reforms with the Membership over the coming days, and to passing this legislation on Wednesday,” House Speaker Ron Mariano and Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz said in a joint statement.
The Ways and Means Committee redraft maintains the $305 million in borrowing authorizations (and some offsetting deauthorizations) Healey originally proposed and adds $120 million in funding for various housing grants including: $50 million for grants and technical assistance for municipalities for converting commercial properties to residential units; $50 million for supporting remediation related to the transformation of former state-owned buildings into housing; and $20 million for a veterans housing initiative. The committee also added a $100,000 line item for local economic development grants.
Leadership said the bill allows multifamily housing as of right on land owned by religious institutions for the first time, a step intended “to ease the housing crisis and increase development.” That portion of the bill is a version of the so-called “Yes In God’s Backyard Bill,” also called the “YIGBY Bill” in an echo of the “YIMBY” label, carried by Rep. Andy Vargas and Sen. Brendan Crighton, Haverhill and Lynn Democrats, respectively.
Density for these projects would be allowed up to 30 units per acre, provided that at least 20 percent of the units are affordable housing for people making 80 percent of area median income, or between 30 units and 50 units per acre if the share of affordable units are higher, or are more deeply affordable. No off-street parking would be required for land within a half-mile of a commuter rail, ferry terminal or “bus station” and no more than 1 spot per unit would be required for buildings outside that.
The bill also paves a path for towns to legalize the conversion of commercial properties into new multifamily and mixed-use housing by right in commercially-zoned areas. Towns that follow this path won’t be able to set the affordable housing requirement for conversions higher than 10 percent a for such conversions, and won’t be able to require projects to adhere to the more costly “stretch” state energy building code.
The bill’s third principal housing reform: preserving Healey’s proposal to define “site plan review” in state law in order to regulate what experts have called the “Wild West” of land-use law.
The MBTA Communities Act and other as-of-right zoning reforms still allow municipal boards to require “site plan reviews” of otherwise-legal-to-build housing developments. but attorneys and other real estate experts say the lack of definition in state law has allowed some boards to turn these reviews into highly politicized affairs.
Banker & Tradesman staff writer James Sanna contributed to this report.
