Outdated sewage estimate further delays West Main apartment proposal 

The city put off a decision on a proposed Main Street apartment building until later this summer as it determines whether the city’s existing infrastructure could handle the building’s sewage.

The Zoning Board of Appeals voted to extend the case until Sept. 9 and to revisit the application at a special meeting on Aug. 7.

The proposed building, known as West Main Apartments, would be located at 1362 Main St. Its developer applied for a special permit under Chapter 40B of Massachusetts General Law, which allows developers to bypass some zoning requirements if their development provides sufficient levels of affordable housing and if the community in which they want to build does not meet the state’s affordable housing benchmarks.

The developer of West Main first appeared in front of the ZBA in January to apply for its special permit. Throughout the hearing process, city departments have discussed concerns about the building’s plans for traffic management, sewage and drainage. 

Sewage planning problems

Assistant City Solicitor Michelle Learned updated the ZBA at its July 8 meeting about the city’s ongoing negotiations with the building’s developer.

Learned said the sewage estimates the developer used in their application were inaccurate as they were estimates from a previous plan to build lab space on the site. 

She said the developer is currently working on a more accurate estimate of the proposed building’s sewage needs.

Learned warned that the development’s proposed 369 units — which she referred to as the “greatest amount so far in the city” — might overtax the sewer pumps the city would use to process it. If that is the case, Learned said the city might want to require the developer to pay to expand the pumps’ capacities. 

The money to pay for that expanded pump capacity could come from funds the developer had set aside as contributions for the Waltham Fire Department, Learned said.

The Fire Department had requested West Main implement fire safety measures beyond the minimum required by Massachusetts law, some of which the developer already agreed to implement. The Fire Department additionally requested the developer contribute funds for a new fire engine and support vehicles in order to better serve the building’s 369 units.

Revisiting affordability

The ZBA also asked about the affordability of the units, which it has repeatedly criticized as insufficient.

Apartment developments approved under Chapter 40B are required to rent 25% of their units at affordable rates, that is, at no more than 30% of a household’s monthly income. This number is calculated based on a household making 80% of the overall area median income. The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates a four-person family making 80% of AMI in Waltham has a total income of around $130,250.

According to the MassHousing eligibility report included in the developer’s application package, the developer initially estimated its affordable units would cost between $2,160, for a studio apartment, and $3,097, for a three-bedroom.

Learned said that because the city has high standards for housing affordability, for other 40B developments the city has often required developers to rent some units at even lower rates.“For all of the 40Bs … we have been pressing for a fourth of the [affordable units] to be at 60% [AMI],” she specified.

In some cases, she added, the city has accepted fewer “deep affordability” units from a developer in exchange for contributions toward the city’s affordable housing trust fund.

Learned said the West Main developer agreed to rent 14 units, approximately 15% of the designated affordable units, at 60% AMI.

Learned recommended that the ZBA not require additional affordable housing contributions from the developer and to instead request that developer funding is used “to make sure that this site is protected for fire safety purposes.”

Decision timeline

Tuesday night’s meeting was not the first time the city delayed decisions on this project. The ZBA had previously extended the hearing process so that the city’s Law Department could draft requirements for a decision granting the developer a special permit. 

Learned said the Law Department should complete that draft soon and hopes to send it to the developer by mid-July.