Health & Fitness
“40B and the Sudbury Housing Production Plan”
It was Johnson Farm that created the current safe harbor. Cooledge at Sudbury adds a little time. What is next?
Sudbury has a certified Housing Production Plan. What does that mean? From a simplified risk analysis standpoint it means Sudbury must add 28 units on the state’s Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI) every year to prevent the possibility of another aggressive development, such as Johnson Farm, under the Massachusetts 40B law. Under 40B, Sudbury must list 10% of all housing on the state’s SHI or remain vulnerable to hostile 40B development. Sudbury counted 5,921 total units of housing in 2010. To reach the 10% goal we needed to list 592 units. As of 2010, Sudbury had 281 units listed on the SHI. We were 311 units short.
The rental developments at Johnson Farm (56 units) and The Coolidge at Sudbury (64 units) have qualified Sudbury under a 40B “Safe Harbor” until ~AUG2014. 25% of these rental units are “affordable”, but all 120 of these units count against our 40B 10%. However, we still need ~191 additional units on the SHI at a minimum of 28/year to maintain the safe harbor until we reach the state mandated 10% of our current housing inventory.
In contrast, a home-ownership 40B development contains 25% SHI units; the remaining 75% is market rate. For each 4 units built, only one goes on the SHI.
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The Housing Production Plan adds 257 SHI units by 2016. (It states 321 units, but Johnson Farm is now 56 units, not 120.) For home-ownership, developers can build 1,028 new housing units, 257 (25%) on the SHI, before reaching Sudbury’s 10% goal. These housing units increase our total inventory by 1,028 requiring 103 SHI units for this development alone. To get these 103 SHI units requires an additional 412 units of 40B home-ownership construction.
Sudbury’s total housing inventory is recalculated only at the federal census, not when houses are built. We become responsible for our 10% of new development only in 2020.
Find out what's happening in Sudburyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
40B is the law and every town’s obligation. The question is: do we want to continue exposed to hostile 40B development or do we want to create our own high density 40B development and then manage future 40B requirements primarily through inclusionary zoning? I believe we should seriously consider focusing on rental units or group homes (where each bed counts toward SHI). This is a perfect topic for a public forum. Sudbury we can do better.
