Town Council, Planning Board will hold joint hearing for Housing Production Plan

Weymouth, MA – Mayor Robert Hedlund announced today that the Weymouth Town Council and Planning Board will hold a joint public hearing to review the Town’s proposed Housing Production Plan as a proactive strategy for diversifying Weymouth’s housing supply to meet current and future needs. The public hearing will open at approximately 7:35 pm on Monday, November 20th, 2017, in the Town Council Chambers.

Over the last year, the Department of Planning and Community Development has worked with the firm RKG Associates of Boston to complete a comprehensive needs assessment of housing resources in Weymouth. Results of this assessment were used to establish a numerical goal for annual housing production, as well as goals for building a more diverse housing supply and strategies for municipal action to achieve these goals. Sources of information for the Town’s HPP have included U.S. census data, population projections, two online surveys, two community meetings, and a series of interviews with Town leaders and staff. 

Goals and strategies proposed in the Town’s HPP were unveiled at a community meeting on October 11th. They include strengthening and expanding local resources that support pathways to homeownership for Weymouth residents; encouraging development of a variety of housing types appropriate for an aging population; integrating affordable housing units into a broader range of housing types throughout the community; and encouraging mixed-income housing through mixed-used development in target business districts and village centers throughout Weymouth. Town staff and RKG Associates will discuss these goals and strategies in detail with the Town Council and Planning Board at the joint public hearing on November 20th. Residents will have an opportunity to ask questions and provide comments. 

If adopted by the Town Council and Planning Board, Weymouth’s HPP will be submitted for approval to the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). If approved by the DHCD, the HPP will 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 developments. The Planning Department’s staff and consultants have done an excellent job assessing our needs and developing realistic, thoughtful goals and strategies for building a more diverse housing supply for residents.”  

Weymouth’s HPP was developed with $23,582 in local Community Preservation funds, appropriated in October of 2016 by Mayor Hedlund and the Weymouth Town Council. Residents can review the HPP’s goal and strategies, as well as all available information on the HPP, through the Town’s project webpage: http://www.weymouth.ma.us/planning-community-development/pages/housing-production-plan-hpp. Comments and questions may be emailed to jkudcey@weymouth.ma.us or given by phone at 781-682-3639.