Affordable Housing Plan to be revised
Planning Board Chairman Joe Sudol reported that the current Affordable Housing Plan, which was approved in Jan. 2005, expires at the end of this month. A revised Affordable Housing Plan is required by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).
Sudol said the revised plan is available now in draft form, and will go through several revisions in the next few weeks prior to being submitted to DHCD at the end of the month. No public hearings are required, but the plan will be the primary agenda item for the Planning Board at its Jan. 25 meeting.
Without an approved plan, Harvard is ineligible for housing grants, and has no possibility of “safe harbor” status for new 40B applications. Demographics are still based on the 2000 census but, according to Sudol, the benefits of having an approved plan outweigh the benefits of having current demographics, which won’t be available until 2010 census data are released, at least a year from now. A revised plan will be able to take advantage of reduced DHCD goal requirements. Sudol explained that, under the current plan, 40B “safe harbor” is achieved in any year when 16 new affordable units are produced. Under new DHCD requirements, only 11 units per year are required.
Updates to the plan are minor, Sudol said. The existing affordable housing inventory has been updated, using the September 2009 DHCD report, and wording has been changed to take advantage of revised DHCD requirements. The needs assessment of the 2005 plan remains unchanged, he said. Housing production goals for 2010 through 2014 have been revised to reflect known projects, and the strategy has been revised to align with known DHCD requirements, to ensure approval. As an example, Sudol said the plan will include identifying areas proposed for creating affordable housing development, and town-owned land committed for development of affordable housing. He said that strategies would be classified priority 1 (next two years) or priority 2 (after two years, before end of five years). Production initiatives would include possible development of new residential zoning districts (with higher density possible), making public land available for affordable housing, and continuing to support private affordable housing development. Preservation strategies would focus on ensuring no loss of existing 40B units, and on preserving existing stock, i.e. maintenance and improvement of properties owned by income-eligible residents. Sudol emphasized working with the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust to produce new affordable housing, and increasing the use of Community Preservation funds for affordable housing initiatives. He cited the importance of building local development and management capacity, including the move to establish a town planner position.
In addition to strategies and actions from the Affordable Housing Plan, Sudol said, the Planning Board expects to work with the Economic Development Analysis Team on zoning changes required to promote commercial development. He said the board would also be getting started on the next revision of the Master Plan, due in 2012.
Planning Board recommends changes to drive-thru, other bylaws
At Annual Town Meeting (ATM) this spring, the Planning Board will seek approval to amend four protective bylaws, including a new one to restrict future drive-thru facilities, such as those found today at Dunkin’ Donuts and Rollstone Bank on Ayer Road.
The most controversial article, said Planning Board Chairman Joe Sudol, will be the drive-thru bylaw. A similar amendment was proposed at ATM in 2009 and rejected, “much to our chagrin,” said Sudol. Harvard’s bylaws today make no mention of such structures, Sudol added, which means that state law prevails, and a bank, pharmacy, or fast food restaurant is free to add a drive-thru, as long as it is “accessory” to the primary use of the building.
The proposed bylaw would ban drive-thrus in Harvard, unless they are “accessory to a bank or financial institution or pharmacy,” in which case the business could apply for a special permit from the Planning Board to build one. A gas station or car wash would not be considered a drive-thru. The new bylaw attempts to limit the impact of drive-thrus on neighboring businesses and residences, as well as nearby traffic, by restricting the length of the “stacking lane” and applying nearly a dozen other limits.
Sudol observed that following the defeat of a drive-thru restriction last year, the Planning Board distributed a survey to which it received 52 responses. “The results were inconclusive,” he said. “Half said, ‘No drive-thrus’; the rest said, ‘We don’t care.’” But when it came to written comments, added Sudol, a majority said they could accept a bank or pharmacy drive-thru, but not a restaurant.
Planning Board members unanimously back the bylaw, said Sudol, but this year “we’d like to get the backing of the Board of Selectmen before going to Town Meeting.”
Other articles recommended by the Planning Board include:
- A definition of the word “building” in Harvard’s protective bylaws to eliminate the possibility that a structure might be able to evade Harvard’s 30,000-square-foot building-size restriction by building a firewall down the center of a structure and calling it two buildings (say, by dividing a 40,000-square-foot building in half using a firewall, as would be permitted under the current bylaw).
- Allow farm stands and other “agricultural enterprises” to use slightly larger off-site directional signs, common during the summer and fall, to point the way to their locations. The current law allows signs up to 3 square feet in size; the new law would allow the size to increase to 4 square feet.
- Accept the new digitized Harvard zoning map prepared for the town by the Massachusetts Resource Planning Commission (MRPC) at no charge to the town. State law requires that ATM approve each new version of this critical document. The current map, said Sudol is a “hand-prepared” map that is illegible and difficult to update; the new one, he said, will be cleaned up so as to be legible, colorized to reflect the different zones, and digitized for easy future updates. Sudol said the new map will be certified by the state.
