For further information call: Kimberly Koopman 978-779-0104 Committee to Elect Tom Miller P.O. Box 552 Bolton, MA  01740 E-mail: TomM4S@yahoo.com

Affordable housing has been making headlines across the state – and right here in Bolton. 

Unfortunately, we are the poster boys for bad behavior. Our statewide ranking is second to last. That’s the bitter fruit of decades of inaction. Since the statute to encourage affordable housing was enacted over 30 years ago, just one such project has been built in Town.

Less than 1% of our total housing qualifies as affordable. Bolton’s population is small, so only a small number of affordable units will be needed to meet State thresholds. But here’s the rub. Thanks to State Law Chapter 40B, developers need only propose 25% of their projects as affordable. This lets them build 75% market rate units and, via the so-called Comprehensive Permit, still escape local controls on density that exist under our zoning bylaws, for the entire project!  If we allow this situation to continue, for every affordable unit Bolton gets credit for, we will be saddled with three additional market rate units crammed on to sites in densities that would otherwise be illegal.

We have two options. The first is to continue to fight developers in the reactive manner we have most recently employed at Sunset Ridge. What’s been the result here? An overly dense project has been nicked  by a miniscule 12% size reduction. It will be allowed, apparently, to claim water rights on Town Land, and sewer rights on a Town Easement.  And expensive contentious legal battles may be looming.

The second is to be proactive and take control of our own destiny. 

Here’s the approach I propose.  Our number one goal should be to provide housing with merit as quickly as possible – and in the locations we want to minimize the environmental impacts to the Town.  That will only occur if we provide an incentive to a developer to bring that housing to us. 

The incentive could take a variety of forms.  First, surplus town land could be employed to provide a subsidy to the developer – whether through a long term land lease or reduced price sale.  Another possibility would be to provide tax relief, which would require approval by the Department of Revenue that would provide the developer the equivalent of EDIP or Tax Increment Financing.

In this manner, we could incent a higher percentage of affordable units in any proposed development. I’d suggest no less than 50%. This would bring us into compliance with the state in an expedited manner. It would preclude the token 25% projects that are merely a subterfuge to skirt local control. It would reduce the impacts that this extreme density housing would have on the community as a whole.

What we can’t do is continue on our present course. We can't wait around for negotiations with developers once they have proposed their projects and they hold all the cards against us. Time is of the essence. Bolton is in the target crosshairs of the development community. A affordable project at the corner of Green and Harvard Roads is apparently in the planning stages. And a large national developer is eyeing the Crystal Springs campground site on Main Street.

Let’s be smart on affordable housing. Let’s take the initiative while we still can.