City Council in brief: Reducing affordable housing minimums gets audience support

City Council this week revisited a question it’s been discussing since January: Are the city’s current affordable housing requirements making housing prohibitively expensive to build?

Some advocates think so. Local housing advocacy group Waltham Inclusive Neighborhoods has advocated for lowering affordability minimums on new construction, arguing that the city’s current regulations haven’t produced any new affordable units in the time they’ve been in place and that the city is in need of new housing stock. 

Ward 8 Councilor Cathyann Harris made a similar argument when she presented the Ordinances and Rules Committee’s proposal for amendments to city regulations at a joint public hearing with the Board of Survey and Planning. These changes were informed by a study conducted by the regional Metropolitan Area Planning Council on what would be fiscally sustainable for developers. She told councilors and members of the Board of Survey and Planning the proposed changes would not affect the city’s MBTA Communities Act compliance.

Under the new regulations, buildings with 8-18 housing units would be mandated to provide 10% of their units at “affordable” rates instead of 15%, and larger buildings would have to provide 15% instead of 20%. In both cases, rent on affordable units could take up no more than 30% of the monthly budget of a family making no more than 80% of the area median income, and developers would have to make a third of these units even more affordable. Previous versions of this legislation required these more deeply affordable units be priced based on households making 50% of the area median income, but the proposed amendments would raise that to 60%.

Seven audience members, including multiple members of WIN, spoke in favor of this legislation. In total, 16 audience members stood in favor of the change and none stood against it. Most audience comments focused on Waltham’s need for more housing and opposed developers opting to pay into the city’s affordable housing trust fund in lieu of producing affordable units.

One speaker, Danny Semeniuta, said he wished the Ordinances and Rules Committee stuck with other options MAPC proposed that would reduce the amount of parking developers would have to build instead of lowering some affordability metrics. Councilor-at-Large Colleen Bradley-MacArthur echoed that sentiment, referencing material she had received from the MAPC about municipalities overestimating parking needs. 

Harris said the committee elected not to change any requirements about parking before the city’s ongoing zoning review comes back with citywide recommendations.

The council sent discussion of the matter back to the Ordinances and Rules Committee and the Board of Survey and Planning for further discussion.

Additionally, the City Council:

• Accepted a $35,000 state grant to purchase safety equipment for the Fire Department.
• Allocated an additional $55,000 to contractor CommunityScale, who the city has hired for its ongoing zoning review, to provide a comprehensive review of three proposed residential, industrial and commercial zoning overlay districts in West Waltham by May.
• Approved all business preliminarily passed at committee meetings last week.
• Heard a proposal to relabel a lot at 495 Lincoln St., currently known as Pizzi Farms, into a Residence B housing district so its owners can develop it into housing.
• Heard a request from Harris and Ward 9 Councilor and Council President Robert G. Logan to introduce legislation penalizing blowing or moving lawn work debris onto streets or sidewalks. This was sent to the Ordinances and Rules Committee.
• Heard requests to update some council rules about the timing of its midyear budget review and the city engineer’s involvement with zoning changes. These were sent to the Ordinances and Rules Committee.
• Opened a discussion on extending public transit options to the city’s North Side, introduced by Councilor-at-Large Tim King alongside Ward 3 Councilor Bill Hanley and Ward 4 Councilor John McLaughlin, to combat traffic and extend transit access. This will be discussed next week at the Economic and Community Development Committee.
• Opened a public hearing on another ordinance change to allow pet grooming businesses to operate by-right in commercial areas. Hanley, Ward 7 Councilor Paul Katz and Councilor-at-Large Randall LeBlanc all spoke on the matter, arguing this legislation would simplify a process that is currently difficult and costly enough to have prevented constituents from starting businesses. The matter was sent to the Ordinances and Rules Committee and the Board of Survey and Planning for further discussion.
• Sent multiple requests from Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy into the council’s committees for further discussion. It sent two funding requests — $44,950 to pave the parking lot at 92 Felton St. and $20,000 for the Housing Department — to the Finance Committee, and a $1.45 million loan request to power the Fernald property to the Long-Term Debt and Capital Planning Committee. The council sent an updated library renovation plan and a plan for a HOME Investment Partnerships Program project at Beaverbrook to the Committee of the Whole.
• Went into executive session to continue discussing multiple real estate matters.