Harvard has until January 2010 to update its affordable housing plan and submit it to the state for approval. The Planning Board, under the direction of the Board of Selectmen, will do the job.
The 2005 plan needs only a partial overhaul—“just enough to meet the current [Department of Housing and Community Development] guidelines,” according to Planning Board Chairman Joe Sudol. He said a full revision won’t be made until at least 2012, when data from the 2010 census can be incorporated.
The update is in response to state requirements, but has also sparked reflection on the town’s affordable housing strategy. In particular, some residents are asking why it has been unsuccessful. Certainly, the yearly goals are high, driven as they are by the state’s mandate that 10 percent of a town’s year-round housing be affordable to those earning less than 80 percent of the area’s median income.
“Since 2002, only 25 communities have been certified” at the 10 percent mark, pointed out the 2005 plan’s principal author, housing expert Bonnie Heudorfer of Stow Road. Heudorfer spoke last week at an affordable housing forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Harvard and the Harvard Press. She noted that the plan outlines impediments to creating affordable homes in a small town with limited budgets and volunteer boards. Nevertheless, it calls for 182 affordable homes to be developed by the town over 10 years. Five years into the plan, seven have been created.
The reason for the lag in production was touched on by Heudorfer, other panelists, and audience members. In particular, two Chapter 40B projects presented in the plan—both on town-owned land—were abandoned in the planning phase. One, on Stow Road, never was built because of vehement neighborhood opposition; another, on Mass. Ave., was quashed for lack of funding. Hope for the 18 accessory apartments envisioned as oases of affordability in the “small and scattered” tradition has evaporated. The home rule petition that would have qualified the apartments as affordable expired this year after the state legislature declined to vote on it.
One success has been a state-funded program to rehabilitate existing homes for lower-income citizens. It created five units that will count as affordable for 15 years, thereby helping people remain in their Harvard homes. Affordable units at Devens also were developed.
Both during and after the forum, advice flowed, especially on the role to be played by the state’s affordable housing law, Chapter 40B. Board of Selectmen Chairman Ron Ricci told the Press he preferred methods other than 40B to meet Harvard’s housing needs.
Mort Miller, chairman of the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust (MAHT), suggested that the plan contain a section “detailing the costs of 40B development” in relation to the market-rate units that come with a 40B development.
Victor Normand, a trustee of the Harvard Conservation Trust, which created Harvard’s first affordable rental units in the 1980s, said maintaining those homes was now “straining” the trust. “It may not be economically feasible to maintain this as affordable,” he said. “It has reached a critical phase where our buildings [on Stow Road and on the Common] are aging and in great need of repair.” It is, he said, “a costly endeavor.” Normand offered to “share the trust’s experience with those who believe converting older homes into affordable houses is an economic alternative.”
Al Combs, a longtime member of the Master Plan Implementation Committee, which will assist the Planning Board in revising the plan, expressed concern about the future of economically diverse housing in town. Combs sees a gap between what people accept in theory, and what they accept when it is “proposed for the lot next door.” The affordable housing plan is well done and not the problem, he said. “We’ve got a financing problem, and we’ve got a commitment problem.” Strong leadership from the selectmen could help, he guessed.
Meanwhile, the Planning Board works on the revision to the plan. At Monday’s Planning Board meeting, board member Kara Minar said she would first read other towns’ plans, including that of Lincoln, where 10.9 percent of the housing is state-defined affordable. Harvard stands at 2.8 percent.
Meeting the January deadline is to Harvard’s benefit, since towns with state-approved plans are eligible to summarily deny 40B projects if they show progress on their plans. Progress for Harvard means building 11 state-defined affordable units per year. That’s down from the 16 required by the regulations that were in effect when the 2005 plan was prepared. Panelists Miller and Sudol spoke of the 42-unit apartment house—not conceived of in the 2005 plan—that they hope will give Harvard that two-year respite. (See story on page 1.) Ground for the building was to have been broken this year behind the Ayer Road Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant. The project, which would be built by local developer Lou Russo’s Wheeler Realty Trust, is stalled due to insufficient financing. The commercial part of Russo’s project is moving ahead.
