Mayor Jared C. Nicholson’s inclusionary zoning ordinance will need eight City Council votes to pass. But we hope all 11 councilors will vote tonight for the plan and underscore their commitment to economic development and affordable housing.
Affordable housing is arguably Nicholson’s top priority since he was sworn into office in January, two months after winning election with a campaign that saw him strongly endorse the Housing Lynn plan and inclusionary zoning.
The proposed ordinance, which the council and the Planning Board will discuss before tonight’s public hearing, would require 10 percent of any new residential development to meet a 60 percent Area Median Income ($65,000) affordable housing requirement.
Inclusionary zoning is intended to “preserve land uses for industrial and commercial uses in order to maintain a robust industrial sector in the city, while establishing zoning use categories around the creative economy to support growth,” according to Nicholson’s office.
Critics of the plan — if any step forward during tonight’s discussion — will brand the affordable housing threshold onerous or claim developers will simply make an in-lieu payment to avoid the threshold.
But those narrowly-focused criticisms ignore inclusionary zoning’s strong commercial/industrial growth incentives.
Specific amendments included in the plan seek to allow research and development in light industrial and waterfront districts “by right;” allow research and development in high industrial and waterfront districts by special permit; allow light manufacturing in waterfront districts by special permit; rezone properties along Federal Street to light industrial, and removing residential land uses from industrial districts.
The proposal scraps the 35 percent minimum-open-space requirement for development on the city’s waterfront and inserts a 10 percent minimum.
City Planner Aaron Clausen said the plan also eliminates multifamily development by-right in the waterfront district, and adds permit options for open floor planning.
That zoning change sets the stage for small manufacturing companies, such as microbreweries and wineries, to have ground-floor-retail spaces. These changes, Clausen told the Greater Lynn Chamber of Commerce Dec. 7, point Lynn in the direction of creating a walkable waterfront area similar to Kendall Square in Cambridge.
Mindful that the 10 percent-affordable housing requirement may not satisfy local housing advocates, Nicholson said the percentage represents a balance struck between new state MBTA Communities regulations limiting the City’s ability to
establish a higher percentage without the analysis to support it.
“Second, there is a reality behind the rationale for those rules, which is that if a community sets the target for affordability too high, it will stop housing projects from being viable,” the mayor stated.
Nicholson credited Councilor at Large Buzzy Barton and Council President Jay Walsh for their interest in ensuring inclusionary zoning lays out a process for the City to tackle economic development and affordable housing creation.
Inclusionary zoning is an instrument for change in Lynn, and councilors tonight can set the stage for making 2023 a year of change by approving Nicholson’s proposal.