Harvard’s percentage of affordable housing stands at 5.8%, short of the state-mandated goal of 10%, the point at which a town has the authority to turn down proposed 40B projects. Leading the effort to get to that number is the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, the local agency whose mission is to help the town meet its needs for housing. Its most immediate task is to update Harvard’s housing production plan.
A housing production plan is a comprehensive assessment meant to determine a town’s needs for affordable housing and set a strategy for achieving them. The plan must be updated every five years, and since Harvard’s plan was last updated in 2017, a revision is due in 2022. Although no fine or civil penalty is leveled on a town that lacks a plan, Arielle Jennings, chair of the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, points to the advantage of having one. For Harvard to claim “safe harbor”—a status that allows the town to deny or place conditions on comprehensive permits without threat of appeal to the state—its plan must be certified by the Department of Housing and Community Development. The certification verifies that a town is increasing its affordable housing by at least 0.5% yearly. After that, the town needs to get 1% of the plan’s housing units built in a given year, and continue at that rate to build the rest of the units that were laid out in the plan.
To ensure Harvard’s plan is done by the end of the year and ushered properly through the state’s approval and certification process, the trust has hired a third-party consulting firm, Metrowest Collaborative Housing.
Chapter 40B allows developers to bypass Harvard’s Planning Board and go directly to the Zoning Board of Appeals for approval. If at least 20-25% of units have long-term affordability restrictions, the ZBA must approve the project, provided it meets state requirements for water, sewage, and wetland protection. Although some 40B projects may be considered friendly—such as those developed under the state’s Local Initiative Program—most 40B developments can be done with minimal input from the community.
“And if towns are not meeting their affordable housing goals, then they are open to these builds,” Jennings confirmed in a conversation with the Press.
Bonnie Heudorfer, a retired planning consultant and housing specialist who wrote the town’s 2004 housing production plan and has helped with others, made a startling observation in a phone interview with the Press. For the last five years, because the 2017 housing production plan was approved but never certified, the town of Harvard lacked the ability to invoke the safe harbor provision.
“It doesn’t appear that Harvard ever requested certification [in 2017]. We would’ve been eligible for two years based on the Bowers Brook development behind the Dunkin’ Donuts on Ayer Road,” she said. “And we probably would’ve been eligible for another two-year safe harbor based on Pine Hill Village.”
Pine Hill Village is a Harvard development approved by the Harvard Zoning Board of Appeals in 2008. Located on Stow Road, the site is 20 1/2 acres and consists of 23 ownership units, six of which will be affordable and sold via lottery.
Heudorfer says Harvard has made significant progress since 2017, with the number of units built increasing from 113 to over 160, a 42% increase. She says that the biggest benefit of creating a housing production plan for a town is to show progress toward the goal of having 10% of units qualified and achieving safe harbor status.
Hiring the professional services of MetroWest Collaborative is likely to ease the process of approval and, if it is eligible, the certification of Harvard’s plan.
“We have contracted them for this six-month period to be the consultants to lead the housing production plan, but we’ve also worked with them in the past,” said Jennings.
Seeking more community input
How will the 2022 housing production plan provide different results from the plan of 2017?
For starters, Jennings believes that new leadership at the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust can give rise to a better plan.
“I want to make sure that this production plan is created with many voices, which not only makes it better, but increases buy-in on its implementation,” she said. “My understanding is that not a lot of voices informed the 2017 housing production plan,” she said.
Toward that end, the trust will be hosting two community forums for the production plan, one at the midpoint and one at the end stage, where people could give feedback about the plan itself and raise concerns.
In addition, the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust has created a survey to help create “a plan for housing solutions that contribute toward a healthy, equitable, and prosperous community.” Residents can take the survey, with anonymity, at www.harvard-ma.gov/home/news/2022-housing-production-plan-
survey. Or, go to harvard-ma.gov, click on “News and Announcements,” and follow links to the survey.
Jennings believes that the success of the plan also depends on the trust’s coordination with other organizations, like the Planning Board. She believes that the trust needs to build more community awareness and address the fears of the community and what they don’t want in their environments.
“We need to work collaboratively with open space and climate [committees] to address issues while also not shying away from growing affordable housing and understanding that as a reality,” Jennings said. “I believe that needs to be a priority for the housing production plan.”
