Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 3/17/2022
EASTHAMPTON – The Planning Board and City Council Ordinance Committee will continue their public hearing regarding changes to the Smart Growth Overlay District on March 29.
The special zoning district, permitted by Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40R, is designed to encourage the development of and access to deed-restricted affordable housing. Working essentially as an incentive program, 40R allows a developer to create more housing than zoning would normally permit provided at least 20 percent of the units are affordable.
The city’s current 40R district includes the Pleasant Street Mills, Main Street, Union Street and Cottage Street. Much of the discussion surrounding this district is focused on the expansion of this district to include the Center-Pepin Elementary School property and a significant portion of the Highway Business district on Northampton Street. The proposed changes would also include amendments to the existing language to add flexibility.
During the initial public hearing on Dec. 14, District 3 City Councilor Thomas Peake, a member of the Ordinance Committee working on this proposal, described the goal of the town in adding this expansion as a way to set up an incentivized creation of affordable housing.
The Ordinance Committee and Planning Board ultimately decided to revisit the topic at another public meeting on Jan. 25. During that meeting, City Planner Jeff Bagg said that the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) would have to review and approve Easthampton’s amended proposal – based off what they discussed on Dec. 14, 2021 – in the Smart Growth Overlay District before they continue discussing nuances during public hearing. Bagg said that the DHCD would take 30 days to review the proposal and provide preliminary feedback. After providing preliminary feedback, the DHCD would then enter another 60-day review period to look over specific zoning language.
“I think, generally speaking, we feel very comfortable that we’re trying to encourage the development of more affordable housing, and that’s [the DHCD’s] objective with 40R,” said Bagg, during the Jan. 25 meeting.
During a joint meeting on March 8, Bagg noted that the city is still waiting for a review and approval from the DHCD on the matter. “We’re just trying to continue this long enough so that we get their feedback,” said Bagg.
According to the city planner, the DHCD should have some feedback on the city’s amendment packet within a week of when the March 8 meeting occurred.
According to Bagg, the DHCD’s obligation after their 60-day review period is to issue or not issue a letter of eligibility for the city’s application, which the DHCD hopes to have submitted to the city by March 30. “With a letter of eligibility, it would free us up and then move this to City Council,” said Bagg. “Once or if the city adopts this, then we would then we would get a final approval from DHCD.”
The immediate next steps are for the Planning Department to upload the comments from the DHCD onto the Easthampton website and incorporate them into their final proposal, which will be discussed at the March 29 meeting
During the March 8 meeting, community resident Donald Torrey spoke about how he would rather see the city focus more on industrial zoning. “I would like to see more industrial going there also,” he said. “If you’re going to change [the Smart Growth Overlay District] for housing, make it for everything.”
Torrey also mentioned how there should be a traffic study done before the city considers implementing affordable housing in the proposed area and generally wondered why the city is pursuing affordable housing in this specific area in the first place.
“I think it’s important to note that, while we’re looking at creating 40R opportunities, most of these things that have any kind of scale would come before the board, go through regular process, and be required to have us ask all the proper questions,” said Planning Board member James Zarvis, in response to Torrey. “Road traffic is the entire development intention of the design and planning for [Route 10 and Northampton Street], and I think looking at that is a worthy conversation, but I don’t think we’re at a point where everything should be shot down.”
Ordinance Committee Chair Salem Derby added that 40R would encourage mixed use, which means there could be apartments and commercial buildings. According to Derby, with this type of setup, people could have more access to city services.
Planning Board member Danny Hartman, who has a background as a traffic engineer, said that a traffic study could not be done unless you know exactly what is going in that area.
One other resident spoke during the March 8 meeting in favor of the proposed change in zoning for affordable housing.
For more information, visit https://www.easthamptonma.gov/566/Zoning-Amendments.