AHO Meeting Tues 9/29

When we said earlier that we'd keep you in the loop on upcoming news about the Affordable Housing Overlay, we didn't quite expect to send a followup message this soon.

But the Somerville Land Use Committee will be meeting on Tuesday, 9/29 at 6:00 pm for a presentation from Senior Planner Dan Bartman for a deeper dive into what an Affordable Housing Overlay would look like in our city.

About Affordable Housing Overlays

Affordable housing overlays (AHOs) are a relatively new type of zoning, but they're becoming increasingly popular in cities where people are concerned about the high cost of new market-rate construction. Austin, TX enacted one last year and estimates that it's already led to about 600 new affordable homes built or under construction that wouldn't have otherwise existed.There are several reasons they're so popular right now.The first is that it's expensive to build stuff, especially in cities like Somerville. When we fund things like the 100 Homes Program and the Affordable Housing Trust, we just don't get a lot of affordable housing per dollar.The second is that a lot of people are incredibly skeptical of for-profit developers and market-rate housing. Even though 20% of the apartments and condos in new buildings are affordable, 80% of it is still quite expensive. We can argue all day about economics and whether high-end housing is a cause or symptom of gentrification, but that isn't going to make people trust developers.Enter the AHO. What if, planners asked, we could adjust the zoning code to get more affordable housing from the same amount of city funding? What if we could get neighbors to support more housing by ensuring that it's available to low and middle income residents?Different cities have different ways of doing this, depending on the major obstacles faced by their affordable housing organizations, but in general an AHO will:

• Simplify approvals for affordable projects so that shovels can get into the ground faster. This is especially important for affordable housing nonprofits, who often lose out on funding or matching grants if they can't get a project started within a certain timeline.

• Reduce restrictions on the height and shape of buildings if they meet affordability requirements.

• Reduce other restrictions, like unit size, number of bedrooms, number of units per building, setbacks, or lot coverage.

Exactly which restrictions get lifted, and how much, and which ones are kept, is what's up for debate over the next few months. We hope to have further details for you next week.