LYNN — Residents will have their last chance to weigh in on the city’s housing production plan next week.
Housing Lynn will launch an online open house to gather public input on draft plan recommendations on Wednesday, Oct. 28, which will include informal office hours from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
During those office hours, residents will be given a brief overview of the online survey that will encompass the open house, which will run through Sunday, Nov. 8, and provide information on plan recommendations, housing needs and what actions are needed to advance those needs and recommendations.
Residents will be given a chance to ask questions following a brief presentation from the Housing Lynn team, which consists of the Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development (LHAND) and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC).
While the first housing survey that was administered over the summer focused on gathering public input on general recommendations “across the board,” LHAND planning and development specialist Jeffrey Weeden said this month’s survey will focus on plan recommendations that have been broken down into five separate strategies.
“Throughout gaining more input and working through some things, it’s been trimmed down to the concrete next steps,” said Weeden. “The next survey would see how to better prioritize and see which ones are more feasible to reach the goals that we set forth.”
Those five strategies consist of utilizing zoning changes to achieve desirable housing production and development, how best to use city resources and suggestions, and a focus on rental protections, welcoming a diverse municipal culture, and preserving the existing housing supply, Weeden said.
Weeden said each strategy aligns with the goals outlined during the development of the city’s housing production plan and include multiple courses of action to achieve those goals.
“I think one of the main strategies is going to be some form of inclusionary zoning and I think that is an effort that takes even more feasibility studies,” Weeden said. “That is something we’re going to look at further as part of this plan. It’s going to be something that’s a little deeper dive.”
There is a lot that goes into inclusionary zoning — which is aimed at increasing the supply of affordable housing for low- or moderate-income households — such as the percentage of affordable units in future developments, how many units in a development would trigger an inclusionary housing requirement, whether that requirement would be in certain locations or citywide, or if a separate housing fund would be created for developers to make a payment in lieu of providing affordable units, Weeden said.
To gain some insight, Weeden said the Housing Lynn team is looking at best practices and models in other communities, in terms of what municipalities have already adopted an inclusionary zoning bylaw. That research will be included as part of the presentation and coinciding survey, he said.
The open house is the last chance for residents to weigh in on the city’s comprehensive housing production plan, dubbed Housing Lynn: A Plan for Inclusive Growth, before a draft of the five-year plan is finalized in November.
“We’re hoping to have it done by the end of the calendar year,” said Weeden. “It’s just a matter of when it’s final and how quickly we can have it on the (city) council agenda. We’re pushing to get it done as quickly as possible.”
When completed, Housing Lynn would meet all of the requirements of a Housing Production Plan, a proactive strategy for planning and developing affordable housing that would have to be approved by the Lynn City Council, the city’s Planning Board and the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development.
Since Lynn has met its state-required affordability threshold under Chapter 40B, with 12.5 percent of units considered affordable by the state’s Subsidized Housing Inventory compared to the 10 percent stipulation, the plan being developed by the city is not a requirement. However, statistics shared by MAPC regarding a high number of low-income and cost-burdened households show that the city’s housing needs have not been met, despite exceeding the state’s requirement for affordable housing, which led to the city’s interest in developing the plan.
At the beginning of the process, Weeden said he looked at the housing production plan through the scope of future development, in terms of ensuring that development would not cause any displacement for current residents or negative impacts to the community.
However, he said much of public input has shown that there are more issues beyond future development that community members are facing. For example, he said people are worried about their current housing units, the city’s housing stock and whether their landlord will raise their rents.
Many people are thinking about their current home and how to improve their neighborhood, rather than future development in downtown Lynn, Weeden said.
“What we had to keep in mind with the recommendations is it’s not just about the development,” said Weeden. “It’s about what people are facing every day.”
Residents can access the online open house at http://mapc.ma/housing-lynn-recs and register for next Wednesday’s virtual office hours at http://mapc.ma/housing-lynn-office-hours.