Seizing the moment, the trustees of the Harvard Municipal Affordable Housing Trust (MAHT) voted unanimously Monday night to offer Devens Village Green a subsidy to defray some of its cost of adding 10 low-income apartments to its proposed housing project on Grant Road. While DVG says it is encouraged by the action, MassDevelopment, the agency responsible for land sales and the redevelopment of the former army base, is keeping its distance.
The MAHT action was in response to a letter from Daniel Gainsboro of DVG last week in which he said DVG was “willing to explore alternatives” to help address Harvard’s affordability goals. Acting on a motion drafted by trustees David Hopper and Leo Blair, the trust agreed to subsidize DVG in the amount of $140,000, provided that the development contain no fewer than 40 rental units, as is currently planned, that 10 of these be restricted to low-income households, and that 10 be restricted to moderate-income households, as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In addition, the trust asks that eight of the for-sale, nonrental units at Devens Village Green also be restricted to moderate-income households.
If DVG were to agree to the plan, the result would be the addition of 40 units of state-defined low-income housing to Harvard’s stock of affordable homes. Without such a plan, the Grant Road project would increase Harvard’s current deficit of affordable homes by 12 or 13 units because it will be constructed on land the state still considers part of Harvard. Massachusetts law recommends that 10 percent of a town’s housing stock be low-income housing; Harvard’s number is currently 5.5 percent.
In his letter to the trust, Gainsboro said that altering the mix of affordable housing would have “a significant negative economic impact” to the project, costing the developer an additional $300,000 to $350,000. Should those numbers be accurate, Harvard’s subsidy would cover 30 to 50 percent of DVG’s loss while using an estimated 35 percent of MAHT dollars.
Good faith
Trust members said Monday night, and again at Tuesday’s selectmen’s meeting, that they wanted to respond quickly to DVG’s overtures and show good faith by “putting money on the table.” But Harvard should not have to bear the cost alone, they said on both occasions. That position was repeated by State Senator Jamie Eldridge in a letter to the Press this week. In addition to seeking federal and state subsidies, he wrote, the developer should ask MassDevelopment to subsidize the low-cost units with its own money. “There are plenty of corporations that receive tax breaks from MassDevelopment; why wouldn’t housing projects also be eligible?” he asked. The town should use its money to build more units “within its official boundaries,” he said in a Monday phone call.
In an email Tuesday night, however, MassDevelopment spokesman Mark Sternman said that the agency has already contributed substantial resources to make Grant Road housing meet Devens’ needs and the requirements of the Devens Enterprise Commission (DEC), the permitting authority for Devens. “Any additional investment to serve Harvard’s goals alone is a matter between the developer and the town,” he wrote.
Sternman said that with 27.1 percent of its housing already set aside for low-income and special-needs households, Devens has exceeded the 25 percent affordable-housing goal specified by the reuse plan and bylaws that govern its development. In coming up with regulations that allow for denser “Innovative Residential Development” for Devens as a whole, the DEC targeted moderate-income units, Sternman said, which both the Devens Reuse Plan and Harvard’s 2011 Affordable Housing Plan have sought to increase. At present, Devens has no moderate-income housing. Neither does Harvard.
“Devens Village Green’s proposed development both complies with the DEC regulations and addresses the need for moderate-income housing in Devens and Harvard,” said Sternman. “If the town of Harvard wants to use housing in Devens to meet its low-income housing goal, then Devens Village Green has offered the town a way to do so if the Harvard Housing Trust Fund makes Devens Village Green financially whole.”
Appropriate and consistent
MAHT Chairman Greg Schmidt and trustees Blair and Hopper say that use of trust money to subsidize DVG is appropriate, given their mission to increase affordable housing in Harvard. They also note that the amount chosen is consistent with the $5,000-per-unit subsidy provided to the Bowers Brook project on Ayer Road that added 40 units of low-income housing to Harvard’s stock. The proposed DVG subsidy would underwrite 28 low- and moderate-income units to the tune of $5,000 each. But buried in the offer is a state incentive that leverages the contribution: Because the 10 low-income units constitute 25 percent of the 40 rental units DVG wants to build at Grant Road, the law says all 40 can be added to Harvard’s low-income count.
Future unknown
All of these calculations are contingent on Harvard, DVG, and MassDevelopment negotiating a mutually beneficial solution. Changes to the DVG plan would need the approval of the DEC. With MassDevelopment unwilling, for the moment, to discuss additional funding or other forms of relief, the outcome is uncertain. On Tuesday evening, after updating the selectmen on the trust’s action, Hopper said that the ball was in MassDevelopment’s court, but no further meetings had been scheduled.
The Devens Enterprise Commission is holding what many expect to be a final hearing followed by a vote to issue a permit for the Grant Road project next Thursday, May 28. Should the project go forward without an accommodation to Harvard’s concerns, the town will be left to consider whether to challenge the DEC’s authority. Asked Monday night by a fellow trustee what he thought would happen if that came to pass, Leo Blair said, “I don’t know.”
