A bill now languishing on Beacon Hill and co-sponsored by Sen. Dan Wolf, who represents the Cape and Islands, Senate bill 122, is intended to streamline permitting and zoning laws, give more power to local planning boards, create more affordable housing through cluster development, and preserve more open space. Last week, Vineyarders were asked for their support.
Seth Rolbein, senior advisor to Senator Wolf, and Don Keeran, assistant director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, were on hand last Wednesday to explain the workings of S. 122, and to garner regional support for the bill at a meeting of the All-Island Planning Board (AIPB).
“There’s a prism we use in our office; it’s always the same on every issue — economic justice and environmental protection,” Mr. Rolbein said. “Those are the two legs that we stand on. This bill really speaks to those issues in a profound way.”
“Poorly planned residential, commercial, and industrial development exacerbate the affordable housing shortage, and threaten the natural and cultural heritage of Massachusetts,” the bill states.
Mr. Rolbein said the 70-page bill has been “kicking around for over a decade,” and many compromises have been made along the way.
“It should be a lot longer than 70 pages,” Mr. Keeran said.
It came as no surprise to AIPB members when Mr. Keeran told them that the American Planning Association said Massachusetts has some of the most antiquated zoning and land-use laws in the nation.
“We have [suburban] sprawl, but we have a housing shortage,” Mr. Keeran said. “We’re developing, but we’re not growing smart. It’s time to fix some of those broken statutes. There’s nothing radical here, but the state legislature has been loath to make big changes.”
Mr. Keeran said the strong real estate and homebuilder lobbies have consistently crushed the bill on Beacon Hill. “You would think a vested public interest would override them, but it doesn’t,” he said.
Density a key
A common refrain among housing advocates is to build density where density exists, which will allow for more workforce housing and concurrently preserve more open space. S. 122 seeks to enable more density with the creation of planned “cluster housing.” With greater density, the bill seeks to create “affordable housing” and “inclusionary housing,” the former defined as a dwelling unit for purchase or rent by a household with an income at or below 80 percent of the area median income according to Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the latter a housing unit for purchase or rent by a household with an income at or below 120 percent of the median family income by HUD guidelines.
The bill also seeks to make it easier to change zoning bylaws at the local level. On the Vineyard, zoning bylaws can only be changed by a vote at town meeting, a tradition which dates back to the 17th century. Currently a supermajority, a two-thirds vote, is required to change a zoning bylaw. “The way Senate bill 122 is written, towns can opt to make zoning changes on a simple majority,” Mr. Rolbein said, adding that adopting that change would still require supermajority vote at town meeting. “If [voters] decide they want to go back to the two-thirds majority, it only needs to be a simple majority vote,” he said. S. 122 includes an allocation of additional funding to cover the costs of educating children moving into the cluster developments, which is an oft-cited concern in housing density discussions on the Island. It also calls for a larger role for local boards of health, with an eye on nitrogen mitigation.
Mr. Keeran said that the Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s powers of oversight will not be diminished by the bill, should it pass.
Mr. Rolbein said the bill currently has “less than a 50/50 chance of passing” in the state legislature, which makes a loud voice of support from the Vineyard even more important.
After an hourlong discussion, the AIPB agreed to send a unified letter of support for S. 122 to the appropriate legislators on Beacon Hill. MVC Executive Director Adam Turner offered to write the letter and send it to AIPB members for final approval.
DRI criteria questioned
In other business, Oak Bluffs planning board (OBPB) member Ewell Hopkins said more cooperation between town planning boards and the business community vis-à-vis the MVC is crucial, and sorely lacking.
“We have to improve the relationship with the MVC,” Mr. Hopkins said. “Right now, the relationship sucks.”
Mr. Hopkins said that the MVC’s development of regional impact (DRI) criteria, currently under review, are a major source of the adversarial tone. “We need a DRI checklist that we can publicly endorse, so we can work regionally with more consistency,” he said. “What goes to the MVC is all over the map. I don’t think it’s consistently imposed.”
“It’s simple wording that trips things up,” OBPB chairman Brian Packish said. “We have projects that are clearly regional in nature and are not being referred, and vice versa.”
“If we rolled up our sleeves and made this a priority, it would be amazing,” Mr. Packish said. “I’d love to see Edgartown and Tisbury on board with the end product. We have serious down-Island issues that are not being addressed.”
In response, Mr. Turner invited all members of the AIPB to the next DRI review committee meeting at the MVC, the following Monday.
The meeting ended with some members expressing frustration at the Island’s collective inability to create more workforce housing, specifically multiunit year-round rental housing.
“We need to talk about scale,” Mr. Packish said. “We’re not going to do it with one unit here and one unit there.”
“Scale begets funding,” Mr. Hopkins said.
“I’m enormously frustrated at the pace the Island isn’t moving,” Doug Ruskin, longtime affordable housing advocate from West Tisbury, said. Mr. Ruskin referenced 40B, the state law that allows developers of affordable housing to bypass local zoning restrictions. “You start thinking big, you can attract big money. I’m not so sure we need zoning changes. 40B is available. If you build 100 units and x percent is affordable, you’ve got it. It’s a matter of will, and if we can get over the fear of doing it.”
Island Housing Trust (IHT) Executive Director Philippe Jordi said the IHT, in conjunction with the MVC, has done a survey of all the available land in each town. “We have a good idea of what we have,” he said. “The next step is to identify what we want.”
The AIPB will meet again on Jan. 13 in Oak Bluffs.
