LYNN — In its drafted housing production plan, the city of Lynn has committed to working on policy changes over the next five years aimed at spurring the creation of affordable housing units in new development.
After more than a year of planning and public consultation, the housing production plan developed by the city, Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development (LHAND) and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) has been drafted and is under review.
“Housing Lynn: A Plan for Inclusive Growth” includes a commitment from the city to guide new development to include deed-restricted affordable housing at a rate of 15 percent of new units for the next five years.
The 15-percent target refers to housing that is affordable to households at or below 80 percent of the area median income (AMI), according to the drafted housing plan. Progress toward that affordable housing goal will be made by both public and private sector activity, according to the plan.
The public is invited to share feedback on the draft version of “Housing Lynn,” — which establishes goals and strategies to expand and diversify the city’s housing stock and increase affordability for people at a variety of income levels — until Jan. 21 by emailing [email protected]. The plan and its executive summary are posted on the MAPC website.
“This plan is a product of a year-long process involving community partners and members of the public to arrive at these recommendations for a balanced approach to future mixed-income housing developments in the city,” said Mayor Thomas M. McGee.
“I hope people will take advantage of, and participate in, the public comment period between now and Jan. 21 so that we can finish with a plan that accurately reflects the housing needs of our community.”
“Housing Lynn” outlines five recommendations that are aimed at meeting the city’s five-year affordable housing commitment. Those strategies are centered around potential zoning and development changes, the use of city resources, tenant protections, municipal culture improvement, and housing preservation, according to the document.
“This plan took an incredible amount of time, resources and effort by LHAND staff, city planning staff, MAPC staff and the volunteer steering committee,” said Charles Gaeta, LHAND executive director. “I cannot thank them enough for all the hard work.
“We look forward to receiving feedback during the public comment period, and then presenting the findings and recommendations to the Planning Board and City Council. We hope the community input given during this process will lay the foundation for significant housing policy and affordability options to help Lynn residents.”
Of the five recommendations outlined in the drafted plan, LHAND Planning and Development Specialist Jeffrey Weeden said the city’s potential adoption of an inclusionary zoning policy would have the largest impact on meeting its affordable housing target.
Under an inclusionary zoning bylaw, an affordable housing component would be included with every new development that is built in the city, which would increase the number of affordable housing units, Weeden said.
If such a bylaw was adopted by the city, it would likely include an affordable housing trust fund component, which would allow developers to contribute a certain amount to that fund in lieu of creating affordable housing units, Weeden said.
However, while inclusionary zoning is one of the main strategies included in the city’s housing production plan, adopting the policy change would be a complicated process, Weeden said, noting that the effort would require time and funding to complete a feasibility study.
Some factors that would be considered with such a study would include the percentage of affordable units that would be set aside in future developments, how many units in a development would trigger an inclusionary zoning requirement, whether that requirement would be in certain locations or citywide, or if the bylaw would include the creation of an affordable housing trust fund, Weeden said.
“A lot of this started because of the future development — the momentum that we have,” said Weeden of what prompted the city to create a housing production plan.
“This kind of sets an infrastructure. Some of the strategies set an infrastructure so some of the things that come in the future can move forward because this is in place,” he said.
The plan is “only the beginning,” Weeden said, noting that the city and LHAND will have to pursue grant funding to work toward implementing each recommendation outlined in the document.
Each strategy in the plan is accompanied by a cost and impact analysis, said Weeden, explaining that while many of the strategies have a high impact with a low cost for affordable housing creation, others come with a high cost. For example, he said the creation of an Office of Housing Stability would require a full-time staff member.
While the majority of plan recommendations are focused on new development, two are aimed at providing tenant protections — a large focus of the community feedback solicited during the planning process; and increasing efforts to foster a welcoming and diverse municipal culture to ensure city actions reflect the full desires of the community, Weeden said.
Any necessary changes from the public comment period will be made before the final housing production plan is presented to the Planning Board and City Council for a potential vote, which is expected to occur in February, Weeden said.
Since Lynn has met its state-required affordability threshold under Chapter 40B — 12.5 percent of city units are considered to be affordable by the state’s “Subsidized Housing Inventory,” which exceeds the 10 percent requirement — the city’s housing production plan was not required.
However, statistics compiled by the MAPC show that the city’s housing needs have not been met. For example, the majority of Lynn residents are cost-burdened, meaning that they spend more than 30 percent of their annual income on housing.
While the area median income for the Greater Boston region, which includes Lynn, is $119,000, Lynn’s local median income is much lower, at approximately $53,000, “which means affordable housing based on this regional definition is not affordable to many Lynners,” the plan’s executive summary said.