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Rule changes intended to add affordable housing options in Easthampton

Date: 6/21/2021

EASTHAMPTON – It may now be easier for multifamily dwellings and accessory apartments to exist in Easthampton with the recent passage of two housing amendments.

The City Council approved both following a public hearing at its June 16 meeting.

The first amendment allows multifamily dwellings with affordable housing to exist by way of plan approval rather than a special permitting process. This change pertains to the R-5, R-10, R-15, R-35, Downtown Business, Highway Business, Mill Industrial and Neighborhood Business districts.

 The other amendment will allow accessory apartments by right rather than utilizing a special permit process in all districts. Other design requirements will have to be reached for the accessory apartment to be allowed by right.

According to Thomas Peake, the city councilor who spearheaded the presentation during the meeting, the entire section involving accessory dwelling units (ADU) was rewritten.

“We knew that we had some major housing affordability issues in the city, so we appropriated some Community Development Act money to fund a consultant to come in and update our Housing Production Plan,” said Peake.

After some delays due to the pandemic, a Housing Production Plan was approved by the City Council back in February. The goal of the plan, according to City Planner Jeff Bagg, is to create a data-driven plan that sets strategies for retaining and creating affordable housing within the community. These two amendments are two of the first steps in the Housing Production Plan process.

“A lot of people want to live here, but we have zoning that makes it very difficult to build new units,” said Peake. “We looked at these two things as low hanging fruit that would be pretty easy to implement.”

For the ADU language, Peake said that the city had the consultant from the Barrett group help them write model zoning, while the multifamily dwelling language only needed minor changes.

After working with Bagg and the consultant to produce amended zoning, the two proposals went through the Ordinance Committee – which Peake is a part of – and then it was approved during a joint Ordinance Committee between the Planning Board and the Ordinance Committee.

General standards for by-right ADUs are as follows: the ADU must be attached to a single or two-family dwelling; the city prefers that the ADU be constructed on an owner-occupied residency; one ADU will be allowed per lot; the ADU cannot be sold or transferred separate from the principal dwelling; there must be adequate parking; and no one can occupy the ADU until a certificate of occupancy is provided by the building commissioner.

If the ADU is attached, then there must be a separate entrance and a safe egress. If the attached unit is above the first floor, then there must be enclosed staircases on the side or back of the building. The ADU must comply with the maximum building height, minimum setbacks, and maximum building coverage for principal structure.

If the ADU is detached, then it could be allowed in existing structures if there is no change in footprint or height of structure. If the ADU were to be placed in new structures, then the structure cannot exceed 900 square feet. If it does exceed 900 square feet, then the resident must go to the Zoning Board of Appeals.

For multifamily dwellings to exist by plan approval, the dwelling must either contain 15 percent of units affordable at 80 percent median income, or 10 percent of units affordable at 50 percent median income. Parking for multifamily dwellings was also reduced from one parking spot per bedroom plus one per every 10 units to 1.5 spaces per unit.  

The council submitted a similar housing production plan in 2014 but were not able to do much with that document. Peake said since then, the affordability situation in Easthampton has changed. The councilor acknowledged the importance of art in the Easthampton community, but expressed concern about the higher prices for housing in the city.

“I worry that, at the current rate, are we going to have working people who can afford to live here in a decade if we don’t find some ways to produce enough housing and enough of the right kinds of housing that there’s actually places for people to live here,” said Peake.

Peake added that getting rid of the special permitting process for ADUs was important because the process takes time and costs a lot of money. “The previous language that we had was not particularly clear about when special permitting is appropriate,” said Peake, who also added that neighbors had to be notified in the past if any changes to a resident’s house were being made. “We just thought that there might be people who might be turned off by that sort of process.”

With both amendments passed, Peake said that he wants to work on historic housing stock present in the city. According to the councilor, there is a lot of “missing middle housing stock” that could be used as a great first apartment within the city, specifically three-unit dwellings. Peake said if the city were to build those now though, it would be tricky.

“We actually have all sorts of housing options that you could put on a small parcel and add a couple of units,” said Peake. “I want to look into what we can do to make that development easier.”

The city is also looking into an affordable housing trust that would allow the city to do some smaller scale projects regarding affordable housing.

“There’s no one magic bullet that’s going to fix everything,” said Peake. “It’s going to be a series of little things.”