Image courtesy of The Architectural Team
After North Andover approved a 280-unit development in a former industrial section of its downtown, an official took the unusual step of praising Massachusetts’ often controversial Chapter 40B affordable housing law.
North Andover Zoning Board of Appeals Chair Michael Lis blamed restrictive local zoning for prompting state lawmakers to enact laws such as 40B and give developers a legal avenue to build multifamily housing.
“This area was never zoned for this purpose. And that is, for better or worse, why we are going through a 40B process,” he said. “40B exists because communities are not zoning for the housing that they need to have, and they are not setting aside the land that they need to in order to have affordable homes or for our communities to be affordable.”
A Needham native, Lis noted that town’s population declined slightly between 1970 and 2010.
“That town turned from a middle-class town to one that is very, very difficult to afford to live in, and it is a town that I cannot afford to live in, and that is part of the reason I live out here in North Andover,” Lis said. “I love this community, but also it was a bit of math.”
The ZBA unanimously voted on July 14 to approve 280 apartments under Chapter 40B, following an eight-month public hearing process.
Somerville-based RCG plans to replace a 2-story parking garage with a pair of U-shaped apartment buildings flanking a new 362-space garage.
The 6-acre site at 0 Prescott St. is part of the former Davis & Furber Mills sites, which included 19th century machine shops that were converted into office space in the 1980s.
The project was reduced from 296 to 280 units during a public hearing process dating back to November. Developers also revised the plans by adding landscaped buffers between the site and a single-family neighborhood located north of the property.
To comply with Chapter 40B, 70 apartments would be reserved for households earning a maximum 80 percent of area median income.
North Andover is subject to Chapter 40B because the town’s subsidized housing inventory totals 8 percent of its housing stock, compared with the statutory minimum of 10 percent to attain “safe harbor” status.
Lis said North Andover has missed opportunities to set aside land for multifamily housing production.
“40B exists to basically tell us, ‘If you’re not going to do it, it’s going to happen to you,’” he said.
RCG purchased portions of the site from 2007 through 2015. The latest development would be built at the corner of Prescott and High streets.
The company’s Merrimack Valley portfolio is led by Principal-in-Charge David Steinbergh. The company owns and manages approximately 1,000 residential units and 1 million square feet of commercial space, according to application materials submitted to the ZBA.
