Worcester Coalition Readies For Inclusionary Zoning Fight

WORCESTER, MA — Worcester Common Ground Executive Director Yvette Dyson says property developers need to focus less on ROI and more on ROC: Return on investment versus return on community.

At a news conference outside City Hall Wednesday, Dyson helped kick off a campaign to urge city officials to write a new zoning policy that would require developers to set aside a share of units in new buildings as affordable for people earning less than the median local income.

Acting City Manager Eric Batista will likely send his idea for the new policy — called inclusionary zoning — to city council for discussion on Tuesday. But the proposal may be more favorable to developers than renters, housing activists say.

"Fifty percent of us are under the area median income of $70,000 in earnings per year. Should I be pushed out? Should I just give-up on my roots here?" resident and YMCA employee Tony Nuahn said during the news conference.

The crux of the fight: Worcester is seeing a lot of new developments, mostly clustered around Polar Park. All but about 6 percent of the over 1,200 units in the pipeline will be set aside as affordable, Main South Community Development Corp. Executive Director Steve Teasdale said. The rest will be "market rate," and thus out of reach for low and medium-wage workers.

The group wants Batista to set the inclusionary zoning policy so that units marked as "affordable" will be in reach of people earning 60 percent or less of the local area median income. The proposal coming to city council on Tuesday will likely include a provision setting the affordability level at 80 percent of AMI.

At the 80 percent threshold, a three-bedroom apartment would still cost well over $2,000 per month, Teasdale said. At 60 percent, the same apartment could rent for closer to $1,700 — still expensive, he said, but more attainable.

Inclusionary zoning policies have been put in place in hundreds of communities across the U.S., and the 80 percent threshold is common. That's the policy in Framingham, Peabody, Natick and Watertown, for example.

Inclusionary zoning policies also typically set a minimum number of units that would have to be available at a reduced rate — typically between 10 and 15 percent of an entire development. That could help Worcester increase the share of affordable units citywide. About 13.5 percent of units are considered affordable in Worcester right now, but new market-rate units coming online could push that number lower.

Worcester's inclusionary zoning policy would also include incentives for developers. In a memo to city council in May, Chief Development Officer Peter Dunn said the city could offer incentives like easing parking space requirements or relaxing dimensional requirements. Parking is such an enormous cost for developers, some cities and towns have done away with parking space minimums. Last year, Boston eliminated off-street parking requirements for affordable housing developments. A similar move in Minneapolis helped reduce rents in new developments.

The policy might also allow developers to skirt the affordability requirements by making payments-in-lieu to the city's new Affordable Housing Trust Fund. That pot of money could then be used to create new or renovate existing affordable housing, among other uses.

District 3 Councilor George Russell, a Realtor in Worcester, said he supports the idea of an inclusionary zoning rule, but wants to make sure it doesn't turn developers off. He said he supported an idea sent to council in the spring with the 80 percent AMI threshold. That proposal also included a 60 percent AMI level if a developer wanted 10 percent or fewer units to be counted as affordable.

"If you're going to ask the private sector to be involved, you're going to want the private sector to make money on it," Russell said Wednesday.

The Rev. Clyde Talley of Belmont A.M.E Zion Church said the housing affordability crisis is hitting residents across the city, not just people looking to move into new buildings. Talley said one of his parishioners living in a triple-decker was forced to move after the building was bought, and the new owner doubled the cost of rent. He said the city's inclusionary zoning policy needs to make sure residents already living here can afford to stay.

"If we don't do it, how is it going to happen?" Talley said.