Update: As of October 7th, Tony Sousa asserted that Oxford has met the land area criteria for affordable housing (see below) after tallying up the existing development in town. The town has filed for safe harbor (stopping the high density developments) while DHCD reviews the data.

My Plan to Protect Oxford from 40B Mega Developments

There has been increasing controversy in Oxford this year regarding two high density 40B residential development projects planned for Main St. While complaining to our state representatives about a state law is completely appropriate, it is important to understand that this law has been on the books since 1969 and is not likely to be removed or dramatically changed anytime soon. I believe that we need a plan for how to come into compliance with 40B so that we can once again enforce the lower density character people like about Oxford.

Oxford already has over 7% of its housing stock accepted as affordable under 40B, so reaching the minimum 10% required is achievable for our community. My plan is for the town to take a more active role in 40B compliance with the following:

Housing Production Plan

A Housing Production Plan (HPP) is a plan by the town to produce affordable housing on a schedule to meet the requirements of 40B that is certified by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). Once a town has a plan in place (that it sticks to) it can go back to enforcing zoning bylaws as normal even though it has not actually reached the 10% affordability threshold. Oxford does not have a HPP and I believe that we should begin work on one immediately as they are complicated and time consuming to develop.

Local Initiative Program

The Local Initiative Program (LIP) is a state program that provides technical assistance to communities and developers producing affordable housing that is not financially subsidized by a government program. Oxford has a substantial stock of rental property that likely meets the affordability requirements of 40B, but is not counted by DHCD because it is not tracked and verified as affordable by a state program. We need to inventory the rental stock and vacant property in Oxford and steer as many of these properties into the (LIP) as possible. Each rental unit counted is one step closer to reaching 10% affordability and less new construction required.

Preserving Existing Affordable Housing

Newly constructed affordable housing does not necessarily remain in 40B compliance forever. Such housing generally is contracted to be affordable for a period of time, which expires and requires renewal. For example, the contract for the Orchard Hill development in Oxford is expiring in the next few years. If developments like this do not renew as affordable, Oxford is trapped in a situation where we can never reach 10% since we are losing units as we are gaining them. The town needs a policy of proactively reaching out to the owners of affordable housing and making sure these units renew as affordable.

Pursue the Land Area 40B Requirement

Communities can reach the affordability standard with 10% of their housing stock OR 1.5% of the land area of the community designated as affordable housing. While having a substantial land area of the town devoted to affordable housing might seem completely out of reach, this area does not include a variety of open spaces that cannot be developed such as areas zoned as open space and wetlands. The town needs to inventory spaces that could potentially be zoned as open space (such as cemeteries, farms, and solar farms) as well as other land area that would not be buildable to explore if the 1.5% criteria can be pursued.

Credit and Thanks

I would like to credit/thank Tony Sousa (Oxford Planning Director) for his invaluable support providing information necessary for many of these ideas as well as Phil DeMartino and Reiko Hayashi from DHCD for all of the background information and support they provided.