Some affluent suburbs like Weston are trying to use age-restricted Chapter 40B affordable housing developments to gain “safe harbor” from the law without helping change the dynamics of the regional real estate market. Photo courtesy of Daderot / Public domain

Cities across the country would die for our formidable cluster of tech and biotech companies, top hospitals and prestigious universities and our booming regional economy. 

But few would want our insane housing prices and rents, which are also some of the most expensive around, with Greater Boston one of the most expensive places in the country in which to buy or rent. 

We can’t seem to be able to get out of our own way and let the housing market function as it should, with builders free respond to demand and produce more housing, which, in turn, would keep prices in check. 

Massachusetts may be one of the wealthiest states in the union, but our NIMBY local officials see their main job as keeping school budgets in check at all costs, mainly by blocking new housing that would attract families with children with children. 

Wrong Approach to 40Bs 

With a median home price of nearly $1.5 million, Weston is a prime example of why Greater Boston’s housing market is such a mess right now. 

The posh western suburb is focused on affordable housing alright, but for all the wrong reasons and in the wrong ways. 

On the plus side, Weston is pushing to meet the 10 percent affordable housing threshold laid out under the state’s decades-old Chapter 40B affordable housing law. 

But like several other Boston area communities, it all seems more about regaining the ability to block new housing as it sees fit than helping meet a chronic shortage. 

Town officials hope that new proposals totaling 275 new units will push Weston over the top and meet that requirement that 10 percent of the housing units in town be offered at below-market  prices or rents. 

Why? Because that would remove the town from the purview of Chapter 40B, which enables housing developer to cut through the local zoning restrictions in order to get new homes and apartments built. 

According to town officials, this would provide a “safe harbor” from “unfriendly” 40B housing developments, the MetroWest Daily News reports. 

Or in plain English, it would be back to business as usual in Weston, which for housing developers means no business at all. 

School Leader Proposes 55-Plus Restriction 

But Weston officials are apparently not just content to let a couple hundred units of new housing get built – a drop in the bucket when it comes to the hundreds of thousands of new units needed over the next few decades. 

If the chairman of the Weston school committee has his way, the new housing would be as unfriendly to families with children as possible. 

The solution, according to local School Committee Chair John Henry (not the same man who owns the Boston Red Sox), is to “steer” developers towards one-bedroom and studio apartments.  

Obviously the developers want the bigger units because they’re going to make more money off of them, but if we can steer them toward as many of the smaller units as possible, that has less impact on the schools,” he told the MetroWest Daily News. 

Another school committee member held out hope a number of the new affordable units would be in age-restricted, senior housing development planned for an old seminary off Winter Street. 

Here again, Weston officials are following a well-worn playbook. 

Encouraging or pushing developers to build over-55 housing is another tactic popular right now among school-cost-phobic officials across the Boston area. 

What is the dire financial situation Weston officials are prepared to outright discriminate against families with children in order to avoid? 

School enrollment is actually dropping in Weston  a not all that unusual phenomenon as younger families with children are priced out of the Boston area. 

Worst case, Weston could see another 390 students if all 600 housing apartments and condos on the drawing boards in town actually get built. 

And they would all have to be at least two-bedroom apartments open to families with school age children – unlikely given the discussion detailed above. 

Affluent Suburbs Can Afford to Build Classrooms 

But what if it were to come true? Weston might have to build addition classrooms and a new water treatment plant. The expense would be “tremendous, the school committee chair warned. 

Somehow, I think Weston could handle building a few more classrooms, though with enrollment on the decline you’d think some extra classroom space might get freed up. 

Scott Van Voorhis

But if Weston truly believes it can’t handle the cost of a modest school expansion, who can? There’s a huge mismatch between local public servants’ constant crying poor and the resources at their disposal. The Boston area has some of the most affluent suburbs in the country. 

But to listen to the local officials run off at the mouth, you would think they are running cash-strapped coal country towns in danger of being overrun by hordes of needy families. 

For the Boston area and Massachusetts as a whole to continue to thrive, more housing of all types is needed. 

Whether we like it or not, we are all in this together. 

We are not 351 petty kingdoms and independent fiefdoms, but rather the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It’s beyond time for all our housinghating ’burbs to start living up to the meaning of that ancient name. 

Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.  

Some Suburbs Forget Fixing Housing Market is a Team Effort

by Scott Van Voorhis time to read: 4 min
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