Why does Melrose need a Housing Production Plan?
Our Housing Production Plan is a critical tool to help our community articulate its housing needs, Mayor Paul Brodeur said. It helps us strategize a means to offer a diverse range of housing options to meet the wide-ranging needs of our residents.  Theres some urgency around the supply of housing in the Boston area and Melrose plays a part in that, added City Councilor Jack Eccles, who is the councils liaison to the HPP Advisory Committee. Theres not enough housing for the people who want to live here. We want to make sure people can live in Melrose in housing appropriate for their needs.  An HPP will allow Melrose to chart its own destiny when it comes to both affordable and market-rate housing production and ensure development occurs in locations best able to support this growth, Director of Planning and Community Development Denise Gaffney explained. For decades, Melrose has served as a local leader when it comes to smart growth policies that concentrate development near transit. We look forward to expanding our portfolio of strategies to best serve the community and most vulnerable populations.  For a number of reasons, including an aging population headed towards retirement, wages lagging behind prices, and more people living in a community than it was designed for, its become harder for people of low or moderate means, often people of color, to afford housing. Along with younger families not being able to find affordable housing, empty-nesters, couples who have paid off their mortgages and whose children have left home, may find it cheaper to stay where they are than move to expensive assisted living or new condo complexes. The Planning and Community Development Office estimates 46 percent of householders are 55 or older and housing prices doubling since 2000, including rising 61 percent between 2010 and 2019. Low and moderate income households are priced out of the ownership market and many existing owners, primarily seniors are unable to find more affordable options for downsizing, reads a statement from the Planning and Community Development Office. Metropolitan Area Planning Council planner John McCartin called the situation a housing crisis, based on information indicating 29 percent of Melrose residents pay more in mortgages or rent than they can really afford. He said that is lower than some other communities but is not nothing.  Eccles mentioned a number of people are burdened or severely burdened by the cost of housing, paying up to 50 percent of their income on occupancy costs, making affordable housing initiatives necessary for younger families looking for larger homes and older people looking to downsize. Massachusetts General Law 40B defines an HPP as a communitys proactive strategy for planning and developing affordable housing by creating a strategy to enable it to meet its affordable housing needs.  Chapter 40B also contains language under which developments can be permitted through the so-called the so-called Comprehensive Permit Act or anti-snob zoning, which eliminates separate permits for developers from various boards in favor of one permit from Zoning Boards of Appeal in order to promote affordable housing until a community has 10 percent of its stock classified as deed restricted affordable housing. Communities that reach 10 percent of its stock as affordable are exempt from 40B. Melrose is at approximately 8 percent with 934 affordable units and needs 150-200 more to reach 10 percent. About 25 percent of 40B developments must be affordable, but as an incentive the state lets communities count all the units built as contributing to the 10 percent, so a community could reach the threshold without all the units being affordable. Only deed restricted units count as affordable housing. Programs in which tenants or landlords are given vouchers to help with rent dont because tenants and landlords may withdraw from those programs.) MAPC defines an HPP as plans that help communities better understand local housing need and demand, development constraints and opportunities, and their vision for future affordable housing and market rate housing.  MAPC cites various reasons for having an HPP including addressing unmet housing needs of low and moderate income residents; influencing the type, amount and location of mixed income and affordable housing; helping communities meet the mandate requiring 10 percent of total year round housing be affordable; and preventing unwanted 40B development through a certified HPP in favor of residential development that complies with local zoning. McCartin feels regardless of opinions about 40B streamlining permitting, this portion of the law is positive because its about having public discussion and coming up with something.  Strategies that can be employed include:  Encouraging duplex townhomes or houses and small multifamily dwellings that fit into the existing context;  Encouraging accessory housing; encouraging production of deed restricted affordable housing; encouraging a fairer, more accessible housing market;  Minimizing homelessness and housing instability;  Encouraging preservation of open space;  Supporting private efforts to meet these goals through friendly 40B projects in which a developer is working cooperatively with the city;  Developing fiscal resources to fund housing goals and supporting private efforts to meet these goals, which might include adoption of the Community Development Act and establishment of a Community Development Commission through which funds might be distributed to buy property for developments. Development of market rate housing must go hand in hand with that of affordable housing. Affordable housing doesnt make money even with the best management, McCartin said. It doesnt pay for itself.