Town Leadership Not Fighting the Good Fight on 40B or Johnson Farm Development

I have read with interest the characterization that somehow all our selectmen backed by the town government are fighting to prevent the Johnson Family Farm from being developed into a 40B complex. Unfortunately past voting records on issues of 40B shows the opposite. Worse, the recent hiring of a pro-40B technical advisor to the ZBA continues a tradition of making Sudbury a developer friendly town for 40B. Unless the residents of Sudbury act to change our town government, all of us are subject to 40B development in our neighborhoods. 

Our town agencies and elected officials have consistently taken pro-40B positions.  Here is a sample:

• The Sudbury Housing Trust took an overt policy position opposing the repeal of 40B last year. (Sudbury Housing Trust Minutes, March 26, 2010) http://www.town.sudbury.ma.us/documents/dl/5717/HousingTrust_2010-03-26_Minutes.pdf
• Selectmen O’Brien served on the Sudbury Housing Trust when this pro-40B vote was taken
• Selectmen Drobinski is not opposed to 40B- (Wicked Local Sudbury, Feb 02, 2011 “Sudbury 40B project passes important hurdle“ http://www.wickedlocal.com/sudbury/news/x1916608421/Sudbury-40B-project-passes-important-hurdle#axzz1acXqcc4Y)
• State Representative Tom Conroy also opposed the repeal of 40B - (http://www.protectaffordablehousing.org)
• The town's affordable housing coordinator also opposed the repeal of 40B   (http://www.protectaffordablehousing.org)

Remember - you can’t be for 40B, except when you don’t like a specific project.   Supporting 40B means you give up local control over zoning decisions for 40B projects.

The latest evidence of the town’s 40B complacency came this week with the announcement that our town planner has hired Ed Marchant (http://sudbury.ma.us/news/3565/) as a technical advisor to the Sudbury Zoning Board of Appeals for the Johnson Farm project.

Who is Ed Marchant and how is he qualified to advise our ZBA?

Reading his resume, he is qualified to advise the ZBA. But Mr. Marchant is highly active in the same pro-40B community that much of our town government supports. Here are some of Mr. Marchant’s positions.

When the citizens of Massachusetts attempted to repeal 40B, Ed Marchant opposed the effort and joined protectaffordablehousing.org (http://www.protectaffordablehousing.org/cms/op/preview/home/who-we-are ). 

Mr. Marchant works closely with CHAPA, another affordable housing group in the state giving seminars on affordable housing. ( CHAPA.org website – “Materials from June 15, 2011 Chapter 40B Training - June 16, 2011” http://www.chapa.org/news/materials-june-15-2011-chapter-40b-training-june-16-2011)

The money to actually pay Mr. Marchant’s salary comes from a grant our town planner received from the Mass. Housing Partnership (http://www.mhp.net/). MHP’s vision, from their website is:

“MHP champions new financing tools and new local strategies for the development of affordable housing in Massachusetts.”

So while the town’s citizens are trying to stop this development, our town government is getting a grant from a quasi-state organization that supports affordable housing to hire a pro-40B consultant to advise our ZBA.

Why do we need a technical advisor to the ZBA?

In Mr. Marchant’s presentation to the town of Marlboro, he states:

“In many instances, Applicants [40B Builders] have also been willing to provide funding to ZBAs to retain technical assistance advisors, particularly if they feel that such technical assistance will expedite the review process." (http://www.chapa.org/pdf/Chapter40BFundamentals_Marlborough_UPDATED_6_16_2011.pdf)

Note the passage above - these technical assistance advisors actually help expedite the review process of 40B. 

According to Marchant, the applicants, the 40B developers, usually provide funding for this. But in Sudbury, our town government seeks out funding from a pro-40B organization, to hire a pro-40B technical consultant so we can expedite the 40B approval process through the ZBA.

Our town leadership is not onboard with helping to keep 40B developments from overrunning Sudbury with their high-density developments. With plenty of open space, great schools and an accommodating town government, Sudbury is ripe for more future 40B development either through external developers or our own Sudbury Housing Trust.

You can’t be for 40B, and against the Johnson Farm project. Johnson Farm is 40B.

What you can do:

• Ask the selectmen to hire a different consultant who can help us assess the Johnson Property
• Ask the selectmen to pass a non-binding resolution that calls on the states legislature to repeal 40B
• Ask the selectmen to advise Representative Conroy that his 40B positions are not in alignment with Sudbury
• Attend town meeting and vote to stop funding the Sudbury Housing Trust until they take an anti-40B position more in keeping with the town’s voters
• Use the 10% of the Community Preservation Act funding that is required to be spent on affordable housing, on 100% affordable housing. Not just the 25% required to build a 40B. Build affordable housing in accordance with local zoning laws.
• Follow the issue, write letters to the editor, and support repeal efforts
• Don’t allow 40B supporters to engage in class warfare. 40B in Sudbury is about high density development where it doesn’t belong. Nothing more. The Johnson Farm shows this in spades.