by Frank Schroth

At the 9/11 meeting of the Planning Board, Chair Alex Whiteside reviewed a 5-year affordable housing proposal that outlined sites and units that could address the town’s requirement for submission of a Housing Production Plan that might have a chance of being approved by the state. If accepted, it will give Milton some control over future housing development that it currently lacks and the power to turn down unwanted 40B developments.

The Board of Selectmen were present for the discussion, which was a follow up to a joint session they held on 9/3. At that meeting, they reviewed a presentation from Karen Sunnarberg who has drafted a production plan for the town (see related post here). At that meeting, Mr. Whiteside was critical of the sites Sunnarberg sited. At issue is the need for a responsible housing production plan to identify sites for affordable housing that will move the town toward the state requirement that 10% of a town’s housing stock be affordable. Milton is currently at ~4.4%. To have a housing production plan approved, the town needs to build 48 affordable units a year over the next 5 years. “Getting anywhere near 48 units a year is absurd,” said Planning Board member Mike Kelly according to a Boston Globe story. It is especially absurd if you don’t try, but try Chair Whiteside did. The properties and number of units he proposed include but are not limited to the following. It should be noted that this is a draft and is likely to be modified.

• Year 1 – 49 life lease units at Fuller Village
• Year 2 – 44 rental units at 131 Eliot Street
• Year 3 – 28 rental units on the Tileston & Hollingsworth property off Truman Highway
• Year 4 – 35 rental units on the Granite Avenue Park & Ride lot
• Year 5 – 28 rental nuits on town owned property off Randolph Ave or off landfill access road.

The above includes only the properties that would make the greatest contribution. Mr. Whiteside included other properties in each year to get to the 48 unit requirement. The reason for rental units is that with a rental development all units count toward the affordable housing requirement though only 25% are in fact affordable. For example, if 35 apartment units were made available on Granite Ave, 26 would be market rate and 9 would be affordable. However all 35 would count toward affordable inventory. If they were condos then only the 9 units would count. There are numerous dependencies and complications associated with each of these properties that can make them problematic. However, it is a start. As Whiteside noted, “These are just ways that it could be done.” Other strategies that the town is looking at include inclusionary zoning, contributions to the housing trust in lieu of units, and off-site construction on units. Regarding the latter, a developer might own two sites, S/he would construct, say, 10 market rate homes on one, and 3 affordable units on the other.

Katie Conlon, Chair of Selectmen, said they would need a revised draft in about a week to reasonably hit their target date of September 25th to vote on the plan. The plan needs to be signed off on by both the Planning Board and the Board of Selectmen.

Other business included but was not limited to:

• There was an update on the Master Plan with Daphne Politis the consultant who is directing the effort. She provided the board with a draft of the plan, which is organized around 7 goals. Politis said to the board, “We need to know from you if we got this right. We want a critical eye on this.” The goal is to have it publicly posted in advance of the final master plan forum to be held on September 29th at Milton High School.
• The board reviewed the zoning articles appearing in the Special Town Meeting Warrant.
• A town planner’s report in which Mr. Clark, Town Planner, said he was working on issues regarding a couple of lawsuits. He said realtor Kevin Keating would be on the working committee for a condominium bylaw. He is also working on issues associated with 0 Central Ave., to which Mr Kelly asked, “What is 0 Central Ave?” (Good grief). 0 Central Ave. is the portion of the Hendries property owned by the town. The balance of the property, referred to as 131 Eliot, is owned by Carrick Realty. The property has been a matter before the planning board for years. It may become a mixed use development or a 40B apartment building. It is scheduled to be jointly demolished by the end of this month as agreed upon in a contract between Carrick Realty and the town.