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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-05-19-HPB-min.pdfLexington Housing Partnership Board Lexington Housing Partnership Board (HPB) Meeting Minutes for May 19, 2026 Attendees: Nanette Byrnes (Chair), Harriet Cohen (Clerk), Margaret Heitz, Vineet Kumar (Select Board liaison), Paul Linton (Vice -Chair), Wendy Manz, Michael J Schanbacher (Planning Board), Melanie Thompson, Ms. Tung (representing Linda Prosnitz (AHT)), Betsey Weiss (Vice -Chair) Absent: Cindy Arens (Sustainable Lexington), Ravneet Grewal, Sandra Hackhman (COA), Chris Herbert, Joyce Murphy, Russ Tanner (LexHAB), Guest: Bob Pressman, Melinda Walker The Housing Partnership Board (HPB) meeting was chaired initially by Wendy Manz and then by Nanette Byrnes and minutes were taken by Harriet Cohen. The meeting was held remotely via Zoom. 1. CaII to Order: Housing Partnership Board Meeting Ms. Manz called the meeting to order at 7:02 pm. The roll was called. 2. Vote on Chairperson and Vice Chairperson Ms. Weiss moved the selection of Ms. Byrnes as HPB Chair. Ms. Heitz seconded the motion. Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the HPB voted by roll call of 7-0-0 to approve the motion. Ms. Weiss moved the selection of Mr. Linton as (co -)Vice -Chair. Ms. Heitz seconded the motion. Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the HPB voted by roll call of 7-0-0 to approve the motion. 3. Discuss SB Housing Policy May 11th True 10%: Ms. Weiss — the subcommittee gave brief remarks. Ms. Byrnes recapped the responses from the Select Board members after the presentations which she characterized as generally positive. Ms. Kumar said that the Select Board was appreciative of all of the information received in written form prior to the presentations. Ms. Kumar also said that the Select Board was very positive about the presentations and fully supports the HPB's efforts. Ms. Kumar then summarized the Select Board's feedback: ■ Finding a path to a true 10% affordable housing, specifying the top 3 action items, providing a goal and activities to reach the goal; ■ How do we strengthen the conversion of existing housing to affordable housing; ■ How do we educate the community on ADUs? ■ Housing in the Center is also important The Select Board would support the idea of forming working groups and recruiting more people if you need to. However, the Select Board did not support the idea of additional committees. Ms. Kumar asked for specifics that the Select Board can discuss and can then go into proposal mode to get something specific the Select Board can vote on. Ms. Kumar noted that the community and other stakeholders must be consulted for their input. Lexington Housing Partnership Board When pressed to specify one or two priorities, Ms. Kumar suggested focusing on one from each segment that the HPB presented. Mr. Pressman noted that the emphasis on going to the Planning Board without support for the idea (other than briefly from Mr. Lucente). Mr. Pressman also asked whether the Planning Board has sufficient bandwidth to undertake new work. Mr. Schanbacher clarified that Mr. Creech is now the chair of the Planning Board. Mr. Schanbacher said the schedule of Planning Board work was best discussed with Mr. Creech, as he is the current chair, and with Ms. McCabe of the Planning Department. Ms. Weiss pointed out that the point of having a Center committee and an Affordable Housing Overlay District committee was specifically to obtain community input. This would provide true community engagement. Mr. Linton inquired about the conversion of existing housing to affordable housing via buydowns. This seems unlikely to generate a significant amount of housing. Ms. Byrnes said that she spoke with Carol Kowalski about ADUs as affordable housing. Ms. Kowalski said that it would cost about $300,000 to build an ADU, and that the ADU owner might not want to be a landlord. Ms. Tung noted that if the Town wants the ADU on the Subsidized Housing Inventory, private ADUs would not be eligible. Ms. Tung also pointed out that the $300,000 per ADU estimate may have been derived from a grant that the AHT provided to LexHAB to build ADUs. The hard costs are about $300,000 but the soft costs are about $275,000, so it is about $575,000 to build an ADU. Additional funds beyond the AHT grant are expected to come from the state and the AHT grant is conditioned upon LexHAB receiving funds from the state. A detailed summary of Ms. Tung's remarks may be found in Appendix A below. Ms. Tung also noted that if the 1,532 planned units are built, 230 will be affordable at 80% of AMI. Because they are LIP projects, the units are going to be slated for first-time homebuyers or age 55+ buyers. Ms. Tung said that, as such, the AHT is trying to create deeper affordability and home ownership for affordable units. Mr. Schanbacher pointed out that under the current MBTA Communities Act zoning very few new affordable units will be built within that zoning. That is likely to exert downward pressure on the quest towards 10% true affordable housing. Ms. Cohen raised a concern about the capacity of the HPB to implement the Select Board priorities and certainly not the budget. The HPB couldn't, for example, pay for the printing of fliers to advertise a panel discussion. In that vein, Ms. Byrnes and Mr. Linton also noted the need for strong support from the Select Board. Ms. Kumar said that the Select Board wants a next level plan. Ms. Weiss pointed out that every presentation gave next steps. Ms. Weiss pointed out that the slides presented to the Select Board had many of the specifics that Ms. Kumar had requested regarding the 10% affordable units. Ms. Byrnes said that since the Select Board did not want to form any more committees, then we need Select Board Lexington Housing Partnership Board guidance as to how to proceed. Ms. Kumar said perhaps another discussion with the Select Board is needed. She said that it would be helpful for the Select Board to have additional time to review the materials from the HPB and then decide on the direction and the support that can be provided to the HPB. Ms. Kumar said that she would propose to the Select Board that they further review the material, discuss the presentations, and then provide direction and support. Ms. Manz suggested that the Community Engagement sub -committee take the initial lead and start work on ways to build support for the affordable housing efforts. We can move forward with this effort while we determine next steps for the other three sub -committees. 4. Liasion Reports AHT: The AHT is developing a strategic plan for a goal for affordable units within the next 3 to 5 years. Ms. Tung has made an inventory of all of the homeownership affordable units and is working on a similar list of rental affordable units. Lexington has become a Housing Choice Community which gives Lexington access to grants that were previously unavailable to the Town. Ms. Tung represents Lexington at the MAPC and attends quarterly meetings of affordable housing trusts in the MAPC MAGIC region. Members of the COA, the AHT, and the HPB have had informal discussions about a possible funding mechanism which would help seniors age in place such as one used by the Town of Littleton. The AHT is prohibited from making such grants, but Lexington could also apply for a Housing Choice Community grant to fund that work. The AHT is starting their pilot rental assistance program. It will be marketed after Labor Day for four to six weeks and then a lottery will be held. Checks for rental assistance will be sent for up to six months for successful applicants. Planning Board: The Planning Board is expecting a new application for 80 Bedford Street with 31 units of which four are affordable units. 131 Hartwell Avenue will come before the Planning Board and should be approved in a formality. Two other open applications are for 419 Marrett Road and 439 Marrett Road. There is an SRD which is being challenged both by the Conservation Commission and the National Park Service. Mr. Schanbacher also reported that the developers of 16 Clarke Street had a good meeting with the HDC. The Planning Board does not need to wait for the HDC approval but wants to wait until there is a clear path for approval before the Planning Board takes up the 16 Clarke Street application. CPC: The CPC has discharged their duties by providing the articles at Town Meeting. The next meeting is in the fall. 5. Review and approve minutes for Feb. 19th, March 18th and April 9th, 2026. Ms. Weiss moved approval of the three sets of minutes, Mr. Linton seconded the motion. Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the HPB voted by roll call of 8-0-0 to approve the motion. Ditti Lexington Housing Partnership Board 6. Schedule Next Meeting The next meeting will be on June 16 at 7:00 pm in person. Ms. Byrnes will provide a meeting location for the in-person meeting. 7. Thank you to Wendy The HPB recognized Ms. Manz for her excellent guidance, her hard work, and her leadership over her many years as chair of the HPB. Each member spoke in appreciation of Wendy and her service to the HPB. 8. New Business No new business. 9. HPB Adjournment Ms. Cohen moved adjournment. Ms. Weiss seconded the motion. Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the HPB voted by roll call of 8-0-0 to approve the motion. The meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm. Lexington Housing Partnership Board Appendix A: Detailed Summary of Ms. Tung's Remarks • Elaine Tung answered HPB questions stemming from the May 11 HPB presentation to the Select Board and follow up. o On ADUs, Ms. Tung explained a privately owned ADU would be difficult to put on the SHI because that would require a regulatory agreement with the state, ongoing monitoring, and other requirements that would make that unlikely to work. It would be the personal choice of a private homeowner building an ADU to make rents affordable. They would not be counted on the SHI. o On ADU cost, she explained the hard cost of the exterior of the ADUs that LexHAB is planning to build with AHT, and state funding is about $300,000, and with soft costs to total is about $575,000. o The AHT can only use CPA funds for LexHAB or LHA ADUs. o Ms. Byrnes asked Ms. Tung about the buydowns the AHT has been considering to try to make more units affordable and create more deeply affordable units in new multifamily buildings o Ms. Tung responded that the AHT is trying to create additional units but have been focused lately on creating deeper affordability. If everything currently planned is built, there will be about 230 units affordable at 80% AMI. In the case of the ownership units, because these are LIP projects, those will be slated for either first-time homebuyers or age 55+. AHT is trying to diversify the types of housing both in terms of income and type — both rental and ownership. Lexington's affordable ownership is extremely low, about a half a percent of our housing stock, so AHT is trying to bring that up. o Ms. Tung noted that many developers don't want to have more affordable units. When that's the case the AHT tries to work for deeper affordability. She described the number of additional units they've been able to secure as "very, very small."