If you can’t beat ‘em, build ‘em: Part 2, we fought George III on that
[Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]
Yesterday’s post began with the happy ending – eight new homes, two of which are affordable and all eight of which will count as affordable, being developed in bucolic Hingham, Massachusetts, as reported by Jessica Bartlett (who’s covered these developments from the beginning) in a Boston Globe (January 24, 2013) article featuring the groundbreaking of a new eight-home development.
The 40B project at 80 Beal St. in Hingham features eight cottage-style homes on three acres.
The land was purchased by Hingham’s Affordable Housing Trust in 2009 for $400,000. The town expects the land sale will enable the town to recoup that cost. The money spent on architects might be recouped from the project’s profits.
The $150,000 given to the project by the town’s Community Preservation Committee will not be recouped, however, as that expenditure is helping to keep the price affordable.
The total property cost $2,900,000, or $362,500 per home. That’s mighty pricey for affordable housing, especially with the town kicking in $550,000 for land acquisition and predevelopment work.
To understand why the town was showing itself so accommodating, we had to trace back fifteen months or more, to the threat of a Chapter 40B inclusionary zoning development of 177 apartments (yes, 20x as big as the property now being celebrated), whose contentious Town Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) hearing was covered in a Boston Globe (June 29, 2012) (blue font) article that made clear the residents were interested in housing development much less for its own sake and more for the sake of fending off the bid bad out-of-state developer:
Start at the top and bounce your way down
“Hingham has consistently taken the view since the Linden Ponds project in 2001 that town has met or exceeded threshold. But without prejudice to that, town has entertained 40B applications in the past…if they make sense for the town,” said Joe Fisher, a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Their voices are revealing:
Betty Gibbons, a resident of Deerfield Road, agreed that the development would significantly impact her neighborhood.
“People who live on Deerfield have lived there for 15 years.”
I’ve previously observed that much NIMBYite opposition boils down to what Rakesh Mohan has called the “third-class carriage mentality” – I’m inside, don’t you dare come in. There it is perfectly expressed.
“If this complex is approved, quality of life will be strongly impacted,” Gibbons said. “It’s more than double the height of our single-family home. We will be stripped of privacy; streetlights will illuminate our yards like a ballpark seven days a week.”
‘Stripped of privacy’? ‘Streetlights illuminate our yards.’ Such rhetoric:
“We pay our taxes … we shouldn’t be subjected to such devastation.”
After the multifamily residential development went in?
That too is another expression of the small-town philosophy: We like our town the way it is, with us inside it, and we want to keep out growth. Except that America’s population keeps growing, and America keeps urbanizing.
Urbanization brings mostly benefits: growing economy, higher standard of living – but it also inevitably brings higher density. People who own developable land in Hingham want to make a profit by selling that land to developers, who want to make a profit by providing housing that people need and want … and all that means Hingham cannot expect to halt the same progress that brought it prosperity.
The proposal is not set in stone, said Michael Roberts, vice president of development for AvalonBay, and the developer hopes to work with the community. “This is the beginning of a process. There are a lot of concerns. Our job is to do the best we can to respond to those concerns,” Roberts said. “There’s been a thought process to our proposal, we are here to address those.”
As might have been expected – and certainly as AvalonBay expected – the town said No:
The meeting was continued to Sept. 12 at 7 pm. A decision regarding the affordable housing number is expected by then.
In fact, it wasn’t – the town appealed to DHCD’s Housing Appeals Committee. Meanwhile, the eight-home development on Beal Street chugged along:
Hingham’s Old Ship Church, built 1681
That largely explains why, unlike other affordable-housing projects, which often draw neighbors’ ire for their size or design, this project is sailing smoothly into Hingham.
Naturally, because when compared with the monster that some people in Hingham perceive AvalonBay to be, an eight-home ownership development seems positively diminutive.
“We held two neighborhood meetings early on. We had the hearing before zoning, where we got a comprehensive permit for it. There were no concerns expressed at that time and we have heard none since,” said selectmen chairwoman Laura Burns.
Selectman Laura Burns, who is retiring because “two terms is a good number for me … it’s a volunteer job.”
Nevertheless, even this expedited process took four years:
Town officials have been working since 2009 to build a 40B project, which requires at least 25% of the houses to be sold at an “affordable” level, on the Beal Street lot.
Hingham, there is your evidence of the challenges of developing housing in America’s “high-barrier-to-entry” communities.
The homes were designed by Strekalovsky Architecture Inc., which was contracted for $70,000 to take the project through the planning stages.
The town settled on this cottage design, because “people in Hingham like the detached home concept,” Burns said.
Typical Hingham home
Naturally – everyone does. We just want other people to live in those townhouses, walkups, or high-rises.
These so-called “friendly 40Bs” are being developed elsewhere in the state, as communities take up these projects as a way to meet their affordable-housing goal, said Matthew Sheaf, a spokesman for the state Department of Housing and Community Development.
“This isn’t rare at all,” Sheaf said.
Hingham center, roughly 100 years ago
No, it’s not rare at all, but to call them ‘friendly’ is to mistake cooperating with the inevitable for enthusiastic embrace – but as a confirmed pragmatist and believer in the production paradox, I have a simpler view – whatever gets quality affordable housing built, I’m for.
Officials chose South Carolina-based Craftsman Builders, and last Thursday selectmen signed a developers’ agreement and a purchase-and-sale agreement for the land.
By contrast, the Town of Woodstock, the locus of peace and light, fussed and fought, kicking and screaming, against their affordable housing property.
For their part, Hingham officials are welcoming the project.
Given the alternatives, as we saw yesterday, 80 Beal Street is clearly the least of evils.
“It’s just going to be a very attractive development and much preferable to what’s there now — a very large, ugly house right on the road. And I think everyone in town will be pleased with the results,” said Selectman Burns.
Affordability too is in the eye of the beholder; for these homes are not cheap:
The $220,000 price for the two below-market units is intended to be affordable for a household earning 70% to 80% of the area’s median income. In Hingham, however, “entry level” doesn’t mean cheap. The price of the other six units is estimated at about $500,000.
Whatever the affordability level, the Beal Street homes will boost Hingham’s stock of housing.
Hingham’s Cushing Homestead, built 1678
According to Burns, the overall project also has the benefit of providing “entry level” homes for smaller families.
“The other six homes are small, 1,400 square feet, and restricted to the size by their condo agreement,” Burns said. “They will always be small homes. They won’t tear them down or replace them, or add on to them; they will buy another house. This is always to be an entry-level home … which is a product we’re losing in Hingham.”
Hingham has been losing the ‘entry-level’ product because Hingham’s scarcity of housing has been driving up home prices and land values. If Hingham really wants entry-level product, why is it opposing AvalonBay?
Make no mistake, Hingham is still opposed:
Should the town disagree with the state’s determination [Regarding Linden Ponds' count toward affordability – Ed.], Hingham can appeal to the Housing Appeals Committee.
Which it did, and on January 14, at virtually the same time as the Globe’s story about the eight homes, Hingham lost.
“It is clear that as of the date of AvalonBay Communities’ application, the town of Hingham had not achieved the housing unit minimum.” (Page 7) “We conclude that Hingham had not achieved the 10% housing unit minimum at the time of AvalonBay Communities’ application and therefore may not available itself of the [10%] safe harbor.” (Page 11)
Naturally, Hingham isn’t yet ready to give up:
Born in Brooklyn, Hingham resident for sixteen years
Selectman Bruce Rabuffo said he was “terribly disappointed” in the decision. “I think we want to review it and see if it’s appealable.” Rabuffo said the decision, which he sees as allowing state housing officials to change regulations at any time, could set a worrisome precedent for other towns working with affordable housing issues.
“I’m very disappointed and I think other towns should be as well,” Rabuffo said. “I thought we fought George III on that.”
Evidently Hingham needs a fallback plan:
“Some years ago the Town Meeting designated 11 acres on a parcel, that happens to be continuous to 80 Beal St., designated for affordable housing,” said Selectman Laura Burns. “This 80 Beal is meant to be a pilot project for that larger’’ one.
Better get cracking.
Better find some more affordable housing on the map
Comment from Dan Gaulin
Date: February 22, 2013, 12:24 pm
Interesting article – one small correction. In an ownership project, only the 2 lower-cost units will count as affordable. It is only on rental projects that a municipality gets credit for all the units. The key issue between the state and the town is whether Linden Gardens which is primarily a continuing care retirement community should get the benefit of the ruling that 100% of the units count in rental projects. The state has maintained that CCRCs are not a pure rental, hence, only the truly affordable units count, the town thinks otherwise. If 100% of Linden Gardens is counted, the town is over the 10% threshold and the decisions of the town Zoning Board of Appeals would can not be brought before the state’s Housing Appeals Committee, in English, that means that AvalonBay’s application is Dead on Arrival.