Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-01-22-HPB.min Lexington Housing Partnership Lexington Housing Partnership Meeting January 22, 2004 The next meeting will be on Feb. 24 at 7:00 p.m. Attendees: Cathy Abbott, Florence Baturin, Bob Bicknell, Harriet Cohen, Robert Cohen, Jeri Foutter, Don Graham, Ed Grant, Tom Harden, Mary Haskell, Arthur Katz, Ken Kreutziger, Dan Smith, Paul Linton, Inky MacDougall, Maryann McCall-Taylor, Betsy Weiss Bob Bicknell called the meeting to order at 7:36 p.m. and chaired the meeting. Harriet Cohen kept the minutes. Announcements Jeri Foutter, from Cambridge Savings Bank, is joining the LHP. Sherry Gordon has agreed to be the liaison from the School Committee Agenda Approve our officers with a formal vote of the Partnership Mr. Bicknell moved that the following slate of officers be approved: Bob Bicknell, Chair  David Burns, Vice-Chair  Harriet Cohen, Secretary  The motion was seconded and approved unanimously. Review procedures for sub-committee meetings Email can be used for an exchange of ideas, but e-mail should not be used as a vehicle to express opinions or make decisions. Please copy Harriet Cohen on e-mail exchanges, and she will keep an archive. Please take minutes at sub-committee meetings. All sub-committee meetings must be in public places. A house of worship is permissible, as is a room in any town office. Meetings in private homes are not permitted, even if it is only one or two people. Sub-committee meetings should be posted. Town meeting rooms are provided by Marie McDonald (x275 in the town manager’s office); the meeting may be posted by sending mail to the Town Clerk and asking for it to be posted. Hear Reports from Sub-committees Met State / Rangeway Road (Ken Kreutziger) The Committee prepared a document (“A Case for Affordable Housing at Met State”; see Exhibit 1) as a talking guide for the interview of Mr. Kreutziger and Mr. Bicknell with the Lexington Minuteman. (A copy of the document was handed out at the meeting tonight.) The Page 1 Lexington Housing Partnership discussion with the Minuteman focused on Met State. Mr. Kreutziger and Mr. Bicknell highlighted to the Minuteman that the Housing Element of the Lexington Comprehensive Plan calls for a housing market that supports a diverse community, and pointed out that Met State as planned will move us broadly forward in meeting this goal. The sub-committee will be meeting on Monday, January 26, 2004, to prepare information to convey to the Planning Board to advise them in their decisions on Met State. Mr. Kreutziger asked the group for its advice on whether to comment on the traffic study as it has been done by consultants hired by Avalon Bay or whether the committee should wait until consultants hired by the Town for peer review have reviewed the report and provided their opinions. There has been some discussion of the density of the Met State project. Mr. Kreutziger provided the following measures: Property within Lexington: 430 units on 82 acres = 5.24 dwelling units per acre  The entire Met State property: 430 units on 340 acres = 1.2 dwelling units per acre  Lexington has 11,300 dwelling units in approximately 16 square miles yields a density of 1.06 dwelling units per acre. At 1.06 du/acre, Lexington is only slightly less dense than the Met State development at 1.2 du/acre. Mr. Kreutziger asked the Committee for its comments on whether to bring this matter up with the Town Planning Board at their meeting on Wednesday. Mr. Harden, who is the chair of the Town Planning Board, said that the purpose of the Town Planning Board meeting is in part to impart information about Met State and in part to solicit comments. As such, it would be very appropriate for the Committee to comment on the density issue and also to talk to the relevance of the Met State development to the Lexington Comprehensive Plan. The Committee agreed that its thoughts should be presented to the Planning Board, with a focus on the needs that drive affordable housing: the need for a diverse community, in which first time home-buyers –including our children– can become homeowners in Lexington. The sub-committee, which will represent the Committee, will provide an updated and edited version of “A Case for Affordable Housing at Met State” as a handout at the meeting. Mr. Bicknell noted that the PSDUP (the Preliminary Site Development and Use Plan) has a lot of information in it, and Mr. Bicknell recommended that the Committee read it when it is posted at the web site. The sub-committee had a review of the Rangeway Road project. The footprint of the house proposed by LexHab is approximately the same as another house on the road. While it is a two-family house, there is only a single front-entry (the other home is entered on the side). Page 2 Lexington Housing Partnership Rangeway Road residents appear to be supportive of the home. The sub- committee will make comments in favor of the house at the Town Planning Board meeting at which it is proposed. Land Use – Winifred McGowan Please see Exhibit 2. Housing Fund – Florence Baturin Ms. Baturin has been exploring whether a Housing Fund should be established. The advice she received said that if we are going to receive money or gifts in kind, then we need to establish a fund which is a non-profit organization. The advice further said that we should have an attorney handle the paperwork for creating the non-profit. If we do apply for non- profit status, we must have bylaws. Ms. Baturin has a copy of Bedford’s Housing Fund’s bylaws. Alternatively, we could set up a Community Development Corporation, which is a type of private non-profit. HOME Consortium David Burns has sent an e-mail report. Fellow Members, On Jan. 8, 2004 we were accepted into the MetroWest Consortium Council. Maryanne McCall Taylor and I attended the meeting and vote. This acceptance steps up our Partnership to be able to now receive Federal funds.. In July of 2005 we will be eligible to receive these funds to promote affordable housing. I believe we will receive about $69,000(Gross) resulting, after expenses of about $48,000.00 net for our projects. Our projects and use of these funds are strictly regulated and there is a lot of paperwork to be done to get it. We need to start discussing and thinking about is how this money will be used, i.e., rental subsidy, LexHab, buy property, etc. It is good that we have been accepted, we now need to think of how we can use these funds effectively. Community Liaison – Art Katz Mr. Katz was instrumental in arranging for the Lexington Minuteman interview, and is pleased with the coverage. Zoning By-Law Changes – Mary Haskell Ms. Haskell is seeking guidance as to the sub-committee’s charter. She asked to meet with Mr. Bicknell for that guidance. Discuss timing and location of next meeting The next meeting will be on Feb. 24 at 7:00 p.m. THIS IS A CHANGE TO AVOID CONFLICT WITH SLCA’s ANNUAL MEETING (Location to be determined). The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 p.m. Page 3 Lexington Housing Partnership A Case for Affordable Housing at Met State Exhibit 1: As members of the Lexington Housing Partnership, we have grave concerns over the lack of affordable housing in our town. The residential development of the Met State land represents an extraordinary opportunity for the town to significantly add to its affordable housing stock. The Housing Element of the Lexington Comprehensive Plan in 2002 identified the following goals and objectives and outlined the difficulty of the Town meeting its goals. Lexington seeks to have a socially and economically diverse community, both over the whole of the community and within its neighborhoods. In support of that fundamental social goal, a basic housing goal is to provide housing opportunities supportive of the population diversity we seek. One clear housing goal is to seek to enable at least our own children to live here, and more broadly to provide housing opportunities for a broad social and economic spectrum. We want to accommodate not only the classic American husband/wife/kids family but also individuals living alone, seniors, young adults, those with physical or mental disabilities, and a variety of others. For Lexington, meeting our housing affordability needs will require attention to the needs of a growing segment of middle income households who also are being priced out of Lexington. The small number of additional units, for which there is land capacity within current zoning, makes achieving housing goals difficult, since almost all of the housing that the Town will contain at “build-out” already exists. Affordable housing at Met State can provide housing for these middle income households including many of our seniors and children’s families. Qualifying for affordable housing in Lexington, a family of two can have an annual income up to $50,100 and a family of four can make $62,650. These figures represent 80% of the Boston Metropolitan Area’s median income. Furthermore, we would like to see a portion of these affordable units be available to those who make 50% of the median income or $31,325. We realize that a development of this size will impact the town by creating more traffic and raising the number of school-aged children. Traditionally most housing units do not fully support by revenue their share of the total tax burden for schools and other services, but the Met State proposal does. The benefits of having more affordable housing in Lexington will far outweigh any added impacts. By adding these affordable units to our housing stock, we will achieve the (albeit arbitrary) 10% affordable housing mark established by Chapter 40B thus leaving Lexington exempt from potentially divisive 40B projects. More importantly, this development, if approved, will allow us to further build a community enriched by socio-economic diversity. At present, many of our elderly parents, our grown children and our town employees on whom we rely for essential services are being priced out of Lexington. Many current residents moved into Lexington with housing opportunities that are no longer available. Due in large part to a lack of affordable housing, Lexington has the third lowest percent population of young adults, aged 20- Page 4 Lexington Housing Partnership 34, in the state. It is in our immediate self-interest to act to increase the affordable housing stock in Lexington so that people who we know and love are given opportunities to live within our community. Given an increasing shortage of buildable land in Lexington, the Met State development is one of the last opportunities for the town to so significantly add to its affordable housing stock. Lexington Housing Partnership The purpose of the Lexington Housing Partnership is to bring together the many committees, groups and dedicated individuals that have been working on housing issues, needs and production to create a unified, focused approach to achieve the broadly shared goal: affordable housing in Lexington. The Partnership is charged by the Board of Selectmen to promote and support affordable housing activities and to recommend appropriate actions. There are 21 voting members of the Partnership, the Board of Selectmen appoint seventeen and four are appointed by designated Boards and Committees. Government liaison representatives attend meetings and other interested citizens can attend meetings and participate in the six standing subcommittees, which are Land Use, Housing Fund, Zoning Bylaw Changes, Home Consortium, Community Liaison, and Met State / Rangeway. Members Appointed by the Board of Selectman: Jeri Foutter David Bums David Williams Pat Nelson Paul Sodano Florence Baturin Bob Bicknell Jackie Davison Mary Haskell Dan Smith Ken Kreutziger Arthur Katz Betsey Weiss Iris Wheaton Inky MacDougall Winifred McGowan Paul Linton Members Appointed by Designated Boards and Committees: Page 5 Lexington Housing Partnership Harriet Cohen Fair Housing and Human Relations Committee Martha Wood LexHAB Robert Cohen Lexington Housing Authority Tom Hardin Planning Board Governmental Liaison Entities: Board of Selectmen Conservation Commission Council on Aging School Committee Town Meeting Member Association Vision 2020 Page 6 Lexington Housing Partnership Exhibit 2: Land Use report as received by Bob Bicknell via e-mail from Winifred McGowan. One of the considerations for housing is reusing already developed parcels. One source is existing modest houses being lost to tear downs and significant additions. What if we could establish an Affordable Housing Development Right or Affordable Housing Restriction (akin to agricultural development rights and conservation restrictions)? It would probably require an Act from the Legislature. It could be employed: a) As buying the rights to the property's appreciation and placing restrictions on appreciation (future sale price increases) and requiring restrictions similar to those placed on affordable units now, and including only small- size additions and selling to income-qualified buyers. There would be a long-term property tax benefit for the owner, which might be attractive to people who have owned their house for a long time, want to stay, and find increasing taxes a significant burden (but would be a loss of future revenue to the Town). This might also enable the children to buy their parents' house as it would remain closer to today's value if it were restricted, assuming they were qualified buyers. b) As paying the difference between market price and "affordable" price in a pass-through (buy at "market" and resell at "affordable") situation and placing the restrictions such as are placed on affordable units now when the unit is sold to an income-qualified buyer. This probably would be handled through an agency such as LexHAB and should be much less costly than building a new unit as the cost is the difference in the 2 prices. There may be owners who would be willing to do a bargain sale for tax purposes or for good will, knowing their house would not be a tear-down. c) as a combination of a and b, if the owners income was low enough, so the appreciation would be based on a rolled-back value and the owner could continue as owner." Page 7