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Senate leaders today released major legislation that would make sweeping changes in the state’s housing and zoning laws, a proposal that would significantly impact development and zoning in every city and town.
Senate leaders have taken previous proposed legislation to update the state’s zoning and planning laws and greatly expanded it by adding provisions that would override local authority in several areas, primarily on housing matters. For example, the bill would require municipalities to adopt “by-right” multi-family housing districts and allow accessory apartments “by-right” in residential districts.
The bill (S. 2311) is scheduled for a vote by the full Senate next Thursday, June 9.
“The MMA supports efforts to give cities and towns real tools to improve local planning and development, and real authority to meet local affordable housing needs and goals,” said MMA Executive Director Geoff Beckwith. “But the for-profit development industry has been pushing hard to preempt local decision-making authority, calling for provisions to override local zoning by mandating ‘as-of-right’ authority for developers, even though this proposed preemption of local zoning would not address the cost of housing or be linked to the development of more affordable housing.”
Key provisions of S. 2311
Mandated “by-right” multi-family housing districts: S. 2311 would mandate every city and town to establish “by-right” zoning districts for multi-family housing, removing any special permit or local approval process except normal site plan review, with no provisions that these housing units meet the affordability needs of the community, and prohibiting communities from setting density provisions less than eight units per acre in rural communities and 15 units per acre in all other communities. The MMA is concerned that this provision will actually increase the cost of housing in cities and towns and make it harder to meet affordable housing targets because developers will pursue high-end developments that yield the highest profits.
Mandated “by-right” accessory apartments: S. 2311 would require every city and town to approve accessory apartments in all residential districts, granting homeowners “by-right” ability to add additions, separate buildings or property renovations as long as the accessory apartment is no larger than half of the entire structure, or 900 square feet, and meets building code standards, although cities and towns could cap accessory apartments to no more than 5 percent of the total non-seasonal housing units in the community.
Mandated “open space residential developments”: Every city and town would be required to approve “by-right” residential development projects with greater density if those projects are designed to preserve open space in or adjacent to the development. These are “compact” or “cluster” developments that are designed to allow for a portion of the land to remain undeveloped.
Inclusionary zoning: The MMA has been a champion of legislation to clearly authorize cities and towns to adopt inclusionary zoning bylaws and ordinances to require developers to include affordable housing as an important component of large projects. This would enable cities and towns to ensure that new developments help to expand the stock of affordable housing. S. 2311 does contain an inclusionary zoning provision, but would only allow inclusionary zoning in exchange for municipal concessions, such as allowing greater density, even if those concessions are not economically necessary for the project to advance. Communities that have already implemented inclusionary zoning ordinances would be forced to weaken their local policies to conform with S. 2311. Under the Senate bill, inclusionary zoning could not be applied to any developments that are submitted under the “by-right,” multi-family districts mandated in the bill. The MMA will be asking senators to remove any conditions or concessions on inclusionary zoning.
Improving the zoning process
The MMA and local officials have been working on zoning legislation for several years to address several problems at the local level, and S. 2311 includes several of these provisions, including the following:
• Communities would be allowed to charge development impact fees to be used only for studies to review the specific project or for infrastructure improvements, but not for personnel-related costs. All unspent money, plus interest, would need to be returned to the developer within six years.
• In order to better connect planning and zoning, communities would be required to develop a comprehensive master plan, and communities would be given the option to reduce the two-thirds majority legislative vote required to make zoning changes down to a simple majority or a percentage in between.
• Site plan review would be codified in statute, with a statutory deadline of 120 days for local review.
• Addressing municipal concerns over the “approval-not-required” issue, communities would be authorized to adopt a minor subdivision zoning bylaw to provide for local review of subdivisions of six units or less. Permitting of minor subdivisions on existing rights-of-way would be required within 65 days, and approval of minor subdivisions on new rights-of-way would be required within 95 days.
The MMA is continuing to review the 46-page bill.
• Link to Legislature’s website for text of S. 2311