During its regular meeting on Monday night, the Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously to receive a memo sent by city councilors imploring board members to ensure developments proposed under Chapter 40B have affordable units set aside in perpetuity; but did not address the document’s contents.
Councilors were highly critical of the ZBA for allowing a number of projects proposed under the law, which allows developers to circumvent local zoning regulations if a community’s housing stock is less than 10% affordable and 20-25% of the units in their proposal are deemed affordable, to let affordability restrictions lapse after a certain time period. Of the seven projects approved by the ZBA that a building permit has been pulled for but that have not begun construction, four would see the affordability designation fall away — three after 30 years and one after 40 years.
“We have to get on the same page,” Councilor-at-Large Jon Turco said. “They should all be perpetuity.”
Councilor-at-Large Anne Manning-Martin said she watched the ZBA, during a hearing for a 40B project, “cave to the tantrum” thrown by an attorney representing the developer. The attorney, she said, told board members that implementing affordability restrictions in perpetuity was not financially viable for the developer.
Ward 5 Councilor Dave Gamache said the board should reject permits if the affordability restrictions are not left in place in perpetuity. But, there is little a local board can do to wholesale reject a 40B application if the community is below the 10% threshold.
“We shouldn’t have to beg them for it,” Gamache said. “We should have the mayor tell them, perpetuity or nothing.”
