Affordable Home Proposal for Mary Lou Lane Receives Down Vote from ZBA

Thursday March 7, the Andover Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) voted to deny a comprehensive permit under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40B for 13 Mary Lou Lane. 

Andover Community Trust (ACT) applied for a comprehensive permit under Chapter 40B to construct a single family affordable home. Chapter 40B is a law enacted in 1969 to help address the shortage of affordable housing statewide by reducing unnecessary barriers created by local approval processes, local zoning, and other restrictions; 40B overrides local zoning to increase the supply of affordable housing. 

Andover has incorporated the need for housing that more people can afford in the Master Plan, the Housing Production Plan, the Comprehensive Plan and the Community Health Improvement Plan. ACT's proposal for 13 Mary Lou Lane is aligned directly with this wider community goal. As a Local Initiative Program (LIP) under 40B, ACT requested and received support for this project in formal hearings with the Andover Housing Trust Fund Board and the Select Board. The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities reviewed the project and issued a site eligibility letter so that ACT could apply to the local Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). The ZBA is the town body authorized to review and grant 40B comprehensive permits. These permits encompass regulations that are not part of the ZBA’s regular permit reviews. 

Town departments and other boards have the technical review role for assessment of a project including planning, health, public works, police, fire and building inspector. An Interdepartmental Review was held on August 29. This review meeting is routinely used by the Planning Board to enable town departments to provide input on a project prior to a hearing and resolve issues of the project. Town department representatives received the project application plans and met with ACT and its architect to review the project. Subsequently ACT submitted changes requested by the town engineer. No issues remained unresolved.

The ZBA began hearings on the comprehensive permit last October, continuing in November, December, February and then this hearing on March 7. A written decision is now being drafted by the ZBA. A vote on that written decision is scheduled for April 4, 2024.

According to Pew Research Center, about half of all Americans say the lack of affordable housing in their community is a major problem. Yet at the same time newspapers are filled with neighborhood opposition to affordable housing from Texas, to Colorado, to Arizona, to South Carolina, and here in Andover. In many towns and cities, permits are denied by local boards. Here, the focus shifted away from the board’s responsibility under Sections 20–23 of 40B to promote development of more affordable housing. ACT’s proposal complies with the local Affordable Housing Bylaw 7.1. Water concerns are under the jurisdiction of Andover’s Stormwater Management and Erosion Control; this single family home on less than 1 acre is exempt from such permit. Traffic and siteline concerns were addressed with appropriate conditions recommended by Bayside Engineering, outside professional consultants, and Andover police.

The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities in 2008 was given explicit authority to issue enforceable program guidelines. These guidelines from the state specifically instruct local review to address legitimate local concerns by placing conditions on the permit to formulate solutions that will allow the project to proceed. 

“The 40B law is focused on townwide housing goals,” said Denise Johnson, executive director of ACT. “We feel this project appropriately responds to the town Master Plan, the Housing Production Plan, the Comprehensive Plan and the Community Health Improvement Plan. When the Select Board and Housing Trust Fund Board support a 40B project, the ZBA review is supposed to find appropriate solutions to craft a project that balances the need for more affordable homes with local concerns; denying a project outright being a last resort. That didn't happen. If the Zoning Board was unsure of the evidence that ACT submitted, it should have consulted the technical assistance that is available through the state’s LIP or its own consultants and changes should have been requested in order to make a decision.”

In Massachusetts Housing Partnership’s 40B Training presented by Judi Barrett, Barrett points out, “the premise of the law is that but for 40B it would not be possible to build the proposed affordable or mixed income development and the developer gets to ask for the waivers necessary to build the project.” 

The Mary Lou Lane proposal would have created a home for a family of 4 with total household income less than $94,650. That income is more than some Andover educators, firefighters and other town employees make and more than many jobs in local businesses. This opportunity for an eligible family to buy a home in Andover was taken away by last week’s vote.

Johnson shared her appreciation for the work that many individuals contributed saying, “ACT is extremely grateful to the boards, committees, town leaders, pro-bono professionals, and volunteers and donors that have worked so hard to make affordable homes happen in Andover.”