Zoning Board of Appeals hears concerns about 40B developments’ affordability

Residents and Massachusetts veterans’ housing advocates appeared before the Waltham Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday to raise issues about housing affordability in two large residential development projects.

The ZBA is working through the details of permits for two large apartment buildings in Waltham. The two proposed buildings, The Residences on Winter at 455 Totten Pond Road and West Main Apartments at 1362 Main St., fall under the regulations of Massachusetts General Law 40B, which allows special permits for residential buildings if they provide a sufficient number of affordable housing units. Under 40B, the local ZBA is responsible for putting together the comprehensive special permit.

Both projects are wrapping up the final stages of their negotiations with city departments, including the ZBA. 

Although the Totten Pond Road project is still addressing traffic and parking issues, its developer is now mostly focused on financial issues, such as negotiating which costs it will cover for the city infrastructure needed to support the project, whether the city would cover any of those costs and what constitutes a sufficient amount of affordable housing units.

This definition of affordability is a sticking point for the board on both projects.

Affordability is calculated as a percentage of Waltham’s area median income. Both projects have proposed offering the requisite 25% of their apartments at 80% of Waltham’s AMI. In previous projects, however, the board determined that percentage was not sufficient and required at least some units at 60% AMI. 

The developers of the projects said they are open to negotiations but also said they’re limited by profitability. Both have suggested that they’d be able to offer more affordable housing if the board offers reduced costs for other parts of the project, such as waiving requirements for more extensive street paving or forgoing demands for fire safety measures not required by the code.

The developer of West Main said it could offer 11 of its affordable units at 60% AMI, and the developer of Residences on Winter offered to either partner with a voucher program to subsidize eight units with controlled interest for veterans or to offer five two-bedroom apartments at somewhere between 60% and 70% AMI.

This hit some friction with the board members, who told both developers those offers were insufficient. 

“You’re splitting hairs over money, and you’re not really creating affordable housing,” ZBA member Gemma Gelineau told the Totten Pond developer.

Perry Krasow, a resident adjacent to the Totten Pond Road project, echoed those concerns. “The intention of 40B was to create affordable housing. And I think it’s pretty clear… that this project will not create affordable housing,” he said.

He compared these projects to others in the area that already started offering their apartments on the market. “The only people who can afford that are people who are already well-off,” he added.

Dave DiGregorio Sr., an advocate for statewide veteran housing legislation, also spoke at the meeting about allocations for veterans on the two projects. 

DiGregorio was instrumental in passing the statewide provisions in the Affordable Housing Act that gave municipalities in certain circumstances options to negotiate with developers to create a preference in up to 10% of affordable units for low-income veterans. Eight other veterans showed up to the meeting to support DiGregorio’s request.

To move forward, the board is requiring the Totten Pond Road developer to return with a revised architectural review accounting for recent changes to traffic on the project. The board agreed with Main Street developers to extend their project’s deadline for 30 days as the city solicitor’s office finalizes a draft of the comprehensive permit.

The developers of the Main Street property will next appear in front of the ZBA at its July 8 meeting and the developer of the Totten Pond Road property will appear before the board on July 22.