Community workshop scheduled for Housing Production Plan

Weymouth, MA – Mayor Robert Hedlund announced today that the Town will host a community workshop for residents to hear and discuss preliminary findings of Weymouth’s Housing Production Plan. The workshop will be facilitated by RKG Associates of Boston, with assistance from the Town’s Planning and Community Development Department.

The community workshop will take place Tuesday, June 20th, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm at the Whipple Senior Center Gymnasium in the John F. McCulloch Building (182 Green Street). There will be a presentation, followed by public comment and discussion.

“The Housing Production Plan will be the first of its kind for Weymouth.” said Mayor Robert Hedlund. “We want residents to be informed and to provide input on where housing should be headed based on data. I encourage everyone to participate, as this plan will guide our development strategies for years to come.”   

A Housing Production Plan (HPP) is a proactive strategy for planning, developing, and diversifying a community’s housing supply to meet current and future needs. Preparing this plan involves completing a comprehensive needs assessment to understand the community’s existing housing stock and population, what demographic trends are affecting future growth, and what the needs for housing will be in the future.

At the June 20th workshop, RKG Associates will present preliminary findings from the Town’s housing needs assessment and invite community participants to comment on the Town’s preliminary goals and strategies for meeting current and future housing needs. Public comment from the workshop will be one of several sources of information used to prepare the Town’s HPP, along with interviews, statistics, and public survey responses already collected by RKG Associates.   

“This is a key opportunity for all residents with thoughts on the future of housing to register their opinions in the most appropriate forum,” said Robert Luongo, Director of Planning and Community Development.

Once complete, and if approved by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), Weymouth’s HPP may provide a “safe harbor” for the community from undesirable Chapter 40B Housing projects. Chapter 40B is a state program created in 1969 that allows developers to override local zoning bylaws in order to increase the stock of affordable housing in municipalities where less than 10 percent of the housing stock is defined as affordable. If a municipality falls below this 10 percent threshold, it may still be exempt from Chapter 40B projects so long as the municipality has a DHCD-approved HPP and can show evidence that progress is being made towards its housing goals.

For questions on the June 20th workshop, please contact Weymouth's Housing Coordinator, Jane Kudcey, at jkudcey@weymouth.ma.us or 781-682-3639.