Mayor invites community to weigh in at final Housing Production Plan Workshop

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

The community workshop will take place Wednesday, October 11th, 2017, at 7:00 pm in the Weymouth High School’s Mary Jo Livingstone Humanities Center (One Wildcat Way). There will be a presentation, followed by public comment and discussion. 

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 a HPP requires a comprehensive needs assessment to understand the community’s existing housing stock and population, what demographic trends are affecting growth, and what the needs for housing will be in the future. Results of this assessment are used to establish a numerical goal for annual housing production, as well as goals for building a diverse housing supply and strategies for municipal action to achieve these goals.

The Town began development of a HPP in June of 2017. Over the last year, the consulting firm RKG Associates has assessed the community’s current and future housing needs and devised a set of a goals and strategies for building a diverse housing supply in Weymouth. Sources of information for the Town’s HPP have included U.S. census data, population projections, two online surveys, a community meeting, and interviews with Town leaders and staff.

At the final community workshop on October 11th, RKG Associates will present the results of Weymouth’s HPP needs assessment and their proposed goals and strategies for housing production in the community. Residents will have the opportunity to weigh in on these goals, as well as weigh in on the type of housing to be encouraged before the HPP is finalized and published.

Once completed, and if approved by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), Weymouth’s HPP can provide the Town with greater control over potentially undesirable comprehensive permit applications, more commonly known as Chapter 40B applications. These applications allow developers to override local zoning bylaws in order to create affordable housing in communities where less than 10 percent of the housing stock is defined as affordable or where less than 1.5 percent of the community’s land area is occupied by affordable housing. If a community has a DHCD-approved HPP and is granted a DHCD certification of compliance with the HPP, a decision by the community’s Board of Zoning Appeals to deny a Chapter 40B application would be deemed “Consistent with Local Needs” under state law and would be upheld by the Massachusetts Housing Appeals Committee (HAC), if appealed.

“This Housing Production Plan is the first of its kind in Weymouth,” said Mayor Robert Hedlund. “The final document will guide our development strategies for years to come, and will have a major impact on our ability to control Chapter 40B housing developments throughout the community. The Planning Department’s staff and consultants have done an excellent job assessing our needs and brainstorming ideas; now I encourage everyone to hear and listen to the goals and strategies that are being proposed, and to tell us what you think.” 

Correction: Due to a staff reporting error, this Announcement included an incorrect date in its original version, released on September 22nd, 2017. The Town began development of a HPP in June of 2017, not June of 2016.