Committee Report CR-1
The Housing Committee held a public hearing on August 4, 2010 beginning at ten o'clock and twenty minutes A.M. in the Ackermann Room for the purpose of receiving an update from the Affordable Housing Trust.
Present at the hearing were Councillor Marjorie C. Decker, Chair of the Committee, Vice Mayor Henrietta Davis, and D. Margaret Drury, City Clerk. Also present were Robert W. Healy, City Manager and Chair of the Affordable Housing Trust, Anna Dolmath, Housing Planner, Community Development Department (CDD), Cassie Arnaud, Housing Planner/Acting Director of Housing, CDD, Linda Prosnitz, Housing Planner, CDD, Susan Schlesinger, Affordable Housing Trust, Gregory Russ, Executive Director, Cambridge Housing Authority (CHA), Michael Haran, CASCAP/Affordable Housing Trust, Peter Graham, Director of Housing, Just A Start, John J. Woods, Deputy Director of Planning and Development, CHA, Terry Dumas, Director of Planning and Development, CHA, Gordon Gottsche, Executive Director, Just A Start, Hatch Sterritt, tenant, Squirrel Brand building, Mary Platt, Federal Management Company for Fresh Pond Apartments,
Councillor Decker convened the hearing and explained the purpose. She emphasized her support for affordable housing in Cambridge and her concern for expiring use issues (the potential loss of affordable housing through the expiration of affordability requirements tied to federal and state use restrictions based on mortgages that will be terminating). Councillor Decker told those present that she is very interested in hearing their ideas about what the City Council can do to support the work of the trust. She invited Mr. Healy to begin the presentation. Mr. Healy began with an overview of the work of the AHT and distributed material depicting and summarizing the projects to which the AHT has provided financial assistance (Attachment A). The summaries include the type of housing (rental or ownership) the amount of AHT/CPA (Community Preservation Act) funds provided by the AHT and the amount of additional funding leveraged by the Trust funding.
He introduced Cassie Arnaud to provide details of the projects and funding for some of the most recent projects. Ms. Arnaud described the two most recently completed projects, the Print shop Condos at 125-127 Harvey Street and the 823 Main Street Condos. Ms. Arnaud stated that the Print Shop Condos, which consist of 24 new affordable homeowner ship units which Cascap built on the site of a former printing facility. The project utilized $3,080,000 of AHT/CPA funds, which leveraged an additional $8 million of funding. The new building will be LEED certified. Ms. Arnaud reported that Just-A-Start developed the 823 Main Street Condos, 10 new affordable homeownership units, the only affordable housing project to date to receive a Platinum LEED certification. The project utilized $1 million in Trust/CPA funds which leveraged an additional $3.2.
Ms Arnaud highlighted the assistance provided by AHT/CPA for rental projects currently in progress, which include HRI's 40-unit affordable rental project on Putnam Avenue in a former pharmaceutical research and development building and the almost complete Cambridge Housing Authority rehabilitation for Jackson Gardens and Lincoln Way.
Ms. Schlesinger emphasized that the Affordable Housing Trust has been consistent in its priorities of family housing and special needs (including homelessness) housing and opportunistic in encouraging flexibility in sites and in adjusting to the changes in the myriad funding programs and sources that must be pieced together to pay for affordable housing. She stated that over 500 units are at risk of losing their affordability protections over the next ten years. She added that, unlike the previous time when Cambridge faced the threat of the expiration of affordability requirements for at least 2,000 units of affordable housing, there is absolutely no federal funding allocated to preserving the affordability of units at risk. Ms. Schlesinger said that the most important thing that the City Council can do for affordable housing is to continue to make the development and preservation of affordable housing one of its top priorities.
Councillor Decker noted that she has been hearing more concern from some neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city about the failure to put affordable housing in all neighborhoods across the city. It would be helpful for the City Council to have tours to see the affordable housing that has been developed with their support and to see how much it can add to a neighborhood.
Ms. Schlesinger agreed that the City Council can be proud of the quality and design of affordable housing projects in Cambridge. She said that if the City Council is serious about putting affordable housing developments in areas like Brattle Street, the Council needs to rezone areas like Brattle Street, which is currently zoned as a very restrictive Residence A District. Mr. Healy added that the argument that all affordable housing developments are sited in poor neighborhoods is disingenuous; zoning is the major barrier to placement in many of the Cambridge neighborhoods where affordable housing opponents claim that the housing developments should be located.
Ms. Schlesinger said that Cambridge has the best inclusionary zoning ordinance in the state. One of its major strengths is a clear priority for provision of onsite units over "buyout" cash to provide money to build affordable units elsewhere. The result of this priority is that affordable units are spread out all over the city in whatever new market-rate residential housing is built, and under the provisions of the law they are built to exactly the same standards as the rest of the units in the building.
Ms. Rono said that the members of the AHT could provide more public information that shows that there really are affordable housing units all over the city.
Councillor Decker said that the City Council and the residents need to have more data about why Cambridge still needs affordable housing, and how many Cambridge residents are struggling to stay in Cambridge. Supporters of affordable housing also need the hard data and facts to counter the false assertion that the 80-10-10 split of CPA funds keeps Cambridge from acquiring and preserving open space. Councillor Decker expressed her grave concern with respect to political fear mongering regarding poor people and "those people" who live in affordable housing.
Vice Mayor Davis noted the recent amendment to the MXD zoning in Kendall Square. The petitioners sought to return the parcel slated for housing to commercial use. The City Council adopted a zoning amendment that allowed additional FAR to build the commercial building on the 200,000 sq.ft. lot, but required 200,000 of residential development somewhere else in the MXD district and provided for significant monetary compensation to the Affordable Housing Trust for delay or noncompliance with the housing development requirement. A good principle for the City Council to incorporate into zoning mitigation discussions is that if the zoning change removes the potential for the construction of housing in that area, there should be monetary compensation sufficient to replace the potential for housing elsewhere.
Councillor Decker said that in the Boston Properties zoning amendment proceedings, the City Council did not have enough information about what would have been enough money to achieve that kind of mitigation. This is an area in which the Trust and CDD staff could be very helpful. She submitted the following motion:
ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to confer with the Assistant City Manager for Community Development with the view of reporting to the City Council with regard to the particular facts and general principles
Mr. Haran said that having done affordable housing development in Cambridge since 1977, he can remember countless times when up to 150 people showed up at public hearings opposed to the particular project. Now, all these years later, after the projects have been built, there are no complaints. He said that the construction at Neville Manor is a good example. There was huge opposition to constructing the assisted living units there, but the City Council still supported the development because it was a real public benefit, and now, not only are there no complaints about it, it is a source of civic pride.
Councillor Decker said that it is important for the entire City Council to hear what Mr. Haran said about the Neville Project and the many other projects where there was strong public opposition at the beginning and then once the project was built and the anticipated problems did not materialize, the opposition disappeared. Vice Mayor Davis said that it is always very helpful for the City Council to hear about successful projects that started out with significant public concern and fear and are now just part of the neighborhood. She added that it is also helpful to hear support for affordable housing from people whom the City Council does not hear from very often, such as members of the nonprofit boards and residents of the affordable housing,
Councillor Decker said that she met with tenants at Fresh Pond Apartments on Rindge Avenue recently. The tenants are worried about the expiring use in that building, and she would like to have more information for them about what could be done. Ms. Arnaud said that the Fresh Pond affordable housing use limitation expires in 2020. HRI is actually talking to some of the owners already. There can be lots of cost savings and other advantages for owners who make a deal while the property is still subject to the use limitation for a significant period. The problem for keeping the Cambridge expiring use buildings as affordable housing is that almost any of the Cambridge buildings would have a much greater value without the use limitation. The City is keeping an eye on the Fresh Pond situation and funding CEOC to do outreach in the building. Other expiring use buildings in Cambridge include the Cast development on Columbia Street, the building at the corner of Prospect and Cambridge Street in Inman Square and Cambridge Court.
Ms. Schlesinger said that the State Legislature just passed MGL Ch 40T which provides a right of purchase running to the state or municipality at market value for expiring use projects that are being marketed for sale. She added that Representative Barney Frank is trying to get a bill passed with resources to keep expiring use projects affordable.
Councillor Decker said that she would like to see more communication between the AHT and the City Council, as well as some tours for the City Council to see some of Cambridge's prize-winning affordable housing developments. She thanked those present for their attendance and participation. The meeting was adjourned at eleven o'clock and fifteen minutes a.m.