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Local officials seek revision of Chapter 40B

January 25, 2006 - Minutes before Blackstone officials testified yesterday about Chapter 40B in front of the Joint Committee on Public Housing, a Saugus woman gushed that the state’s so-called anti-snob law was the best thing to happen to her since her triplets’ birth. 

"We’re not here to talk about success stories," said Kopelman and Paige lawyer Jason Talerman, whose firm represents 120 municipalities including Blackstone. "We’re here to talk about abuses (of the law). For every success story, there’s an abuse." 

The Saugus mother praised Chapter 40B, legislation aimed toward increasing the state’s affordable housing stock. Without it, she said, she would not have been a homeowner. Local officials do not dispute the benefits of having controls in place to make housing affordable, but think the law could be improved. 

A handful of Blackstone officials and their lawyer were among about 60 people who attended a public hearing on Chapter 40B, 36-year-old legislation that allows residential developers to skirt most local zoning bylaws if at least 25 percent of their units meet the state’s affordable housing guidelines. 

Frustration with the law has prompted local residents, legislators and officials to fight for revisions to the statute. At present, there are 55 proposals to either eliminate, change or revise Chapter 40B. 

Municipalities may only reject such projects when at least 10 percent of their housing stock is affordable. Blackstone is at the 2 percent mark. Only 47 of the state’s 351 cities and towns have reached the threshold, according to state Sen. Brian Joyce, Senate chairman of the committee on public housing. 

Blackstone officials support state Sen. Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge’s proposed amendment to the law. They advocated for his bill, which is co-sponsored by state Rep. Jennifer M. Callahan, D-Sutton. 

"I don’t think I have to tell you that local officials are seething over the burden being imposed from the state that removes significantly from them the ability to control growth in their community," Moore testified. "People in the Blackstone Valley are not snobs, or trying to keep people out." 

One of Moore’s proposals would increase the percentage of affordable housing that must be in a 40B development from 25 percent to approximately 30 percent, reducing developers’ profit margin. 

"We would like to limit the number of variances developers can seek," Blackstone selectmen Chairman Charles Sawyer said. "The number of bills before us shows the need for pressing changes to 40B -- constructive changes." 

In the fall, Blackstone selectmen held several hearings on the statute. In November, resident and former selectman John Eldridge proposed the town start a petition to revise and improve the law. 

In the last three weeks, the town has gathered 1,000 signatures, which Town Administrator Ray Houle handed the joint committee yesterday. 

In speaking with a loose coalition of a dozen communities representing 100,000 people, Houle said, the consensus has been that they all back affordable housing, but "sensible affordable housing." 

Blackstone Selectman Robert Dubois said before speaking to the joint committee that many people share his feeling that the law must be revamped, but his town was the only local town to testify yesterday. 

"We don’t want developers to have so much power that zoning boards have no say," Dubois said. 

Barnstable Town Manager John Klimm offered a different view, as he encouraged the joint committee to keep the law as it is. 

"It is all too easy to blame Chapter 40B and the development community for bad development," Klimm said. "It’s not their job to plan, that is our responsibility at the local level." 

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