Can 40R help address our housing shortage?

Description

Once this pandemic is behind us, it will be necessary to once-again focus on our region’s housing supply shortage.  One tool worth examining may be the state’s Smart Growth Zoning and Housing Production Act (Chapter 40R) which encourages communities to create dense residential or mixed-use smart growth zoning districts, including a high percentage of affordable housing units, to be located near transit stations, in areas of concentrated development such as existing city and town centers, and in other highly suitable locations.

The legislation offers financial incentives to the host community including a zoning incentive payment when it adopts the 40R overlay and a density bonus payment ($3,000 per unit) if and when units are built.

We’ll hear from a panel representing a broad cross-section of smart growth experts including a developer now constructing project in Woburn; a town planner who was involved with two of the earliest smart growth overlay districts and a Massachusetts official charged with supporting the implementation of the 40R program.

Speakers:
 
William Reyelt, Principal Planner, Smart Growth Programs, Office of Sustainable Communities, MA Dept. of Housing & Community Development

Julie Mercier, Community Development Director, Town of Reading, MA

David O. Gillespie, Vice President- Development, AvalonBay Communities, Inc.

Moderator: Bill Lovett, Regional Director of Acquisitions and Development at Toll Brothers Apartment Living