[ad_1]
FOXBORO – An unconventional proposal that would take advantage of the state’s affordable housing program to consolidate 52 units on a small plot of environmentally sensitive Morse Street passed a major hurdle this week.
Following a series of fact-finding sessions held over the summer months, selected men voted 4-1 on Tuesday evening to officially sponsor the project, which will be located on land previously owned by Willow Grove Nursery.
Tuesday night’s vote, while important, is only the first step in a long approval process that will involve both state and local land use and environmental agencies before a final decision is made by the city’s zoning appeal board.
“I think this is the end of Stage 1,” observed selection chair Leah Gibson, who, along with colleagues Mark Elfman, Edward O’Leary and Seth Ferguson, voted in favor of the plan.
Board member Stephanie McGowan, who cast the only dissenting vote, insisted that her opposition be recognized when the board’s action was declared to state housing agencies.
“I want them to know that a selectman didn’t support this at all,” McGowan said.
Tuesday’s vote culminated in a long and at times heated session in which elected officials again heard from opponents and supporters of the project before concluding that there was no reason to further delay a decision.
“If it feels like some of us have put our cards on the table,” Ferguson said. “Extending this might just be dragging out the process for the sake of the process, when we already have an understanding of where the vote is going to fall.”
Currently, the proposal is for 10 units in cottage-style duplexes on Bleachery Pond, 40 units in two-story “quadplexes” clustered around small green spaces and two more units fashioned from an existing dwelling on the site.
The project is licensed through the state’s 40b Affordable Housing Program, which allows developers to bypass certain local planning and zoning regulations if less than 10% of a community’s housing is not designated as affordable.
Although Foxboro has surpassed that threshold, with 12.8% of the local housing stock now deemed affordable by state standards, officials said the 40b program is the only way a project of this density could be allowed. as part of zoning.
Under process 40b, 13 of the 52 units would be reserved for families or individuals with annual income between $ 60,000 and $ 90,000, with the remaining units being sold at market rate.
The six-acre parcel at 119 Morse Street, located near the city limit of Mansfield, across from the former Bleachery industrial complex, is owned by longtime resident and businessman Michael Saegh, who thanked the elected for their consideration.
[ad_2]
Source link