NOT AN APRIL FOOLS DAY JOKE!

The Center is in the midst of preparing for the FOSI Yard Sale on this Saturday, and therefore my usual first Friday of the month office hours there will be postponed to April 8, a week from tomorrow.
The Center is in the midst of preparing for the FOSI Yard Sale on this Saturday, and therefore my usual first Friday of the month office hours there will be postponed to April 8, a week from tomorrow.
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Posted in Events, Select Board matters, Seniors
NB – The Rosebay development that had been pending before the Zoning Board of Appeals had issues raised with respect to the legal sufficiency of the Medfield Housing Authority’s RFP that selected Newgate as its developer, that were being addressed. In the mean time, the Select Board (Mr. Murby and Mr. Marcucci, with me recused due to being a neighbor) has had recent discussions about offering the Hinkley land off Ice House Road next to The Center, to the Medfield Housing Authority to see if the Rosebay development could be better built at that site.
Posted in Affordable housing / 40B, Seniors
Good article in the Medfield Press this week on the next steps for the proposed senior housing on the former Hinkley land – it starts with a request for proposals (RFP) – see the full article here.
The town purchased about ten acres from the Hinkley family for $1.1 m. and is looking to have private developers bid to build moderately priced senior housing on about half of that land, the southern section abutting Lot 3 and The Center. The balance of the town’s Hinkley land is off Harding Street is not included in this RFP.
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MEDFIELD – The town is seeking developer proposals for senior housing on the Ice House Road land known as the Hinkley property.
The Board of Selectmen, at its Oct. 15 meeting, approved a request for proposals on the about 5.5-acre parcel, in the hopes of creating more affordable living options for the town’s seniors. The town had purchased the property in 2000 for $1.1 million.
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Posted in Development, Seniors
The Zoning Board of Appeals of the Town of Medfield notified the Rosebay applicant at the initial August 15 hearing last Thursday that the Town of Medfield was claiming its safe harbor rights, but that the ZBA would still proceed with the hearing to see if the applicant and the ZBA could get to an acceptable compromise on the project that the ZBA can support.
Below is the town’s special counsel’s notice to the Rosebay developer.
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Posted in Affordable housing / 40B, Development, Seniors, Zoning
First, the Medfield Press’ Mike Gleason did a good article on Rosebay this week, available here
Second, I answered a query from a neighbor this morning that I thought others might find useful, so I am inserting it below.
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Rosebay, which is technically not an expansion of Tilden Village, proposes to provide 45 units of income restricted housing for seniors on Pound Street land owned by the Medfield Housing Authority next to Tilden Village, which project has been initiated and pushed forward by the Medfield Housing Authority.
The Board of Selectmen have for years asked the Medfield Housing Authority to move forward with such a project. The current Director, Candace Loewen, and her board have been the ones to actually get it done, and for that the town needs to thank them. However, I think the town was surprised by the size and scale of the end product.
The only way to create such a project at this time is by using low income tax credit financing, where the tax credits for such projects issued by the state get sold to pay for the building of the project. The rental income would not be great enough for such a project to get regular financing. The Parc was also built using this method.
There seems to be universal agreement that more such senior housing is needed in Medfield, with the point of disagreement being whether the size and mass of this current proposal is disqualifying.
The decision of what to do with that project rests entirely with the Zoning Board of Appeals of the Town of Medfield, in response to the application for a comprehensive permits that was recently filed. There will likely be several nights of hearings, the first of which is scheduled for August 15, 2019. The ZBA will retain, at the developer’s expense, its own experts to peer review the application and to make recommendations to the ZBA. In the usual circumstance, the ZBA has a Hobson’s choice, since if they deny the application the developer will merely appeal to the state Housing Appeals Committee (https://www.mass.gov/service-details/housing-appeals-committee-hac), which tends to always allow almost all developer appeals. Therefore the usual ZBA task is to thread the needle of approving the application, but with conditions that make it more palatable for the town while not making it “uneconomic” (statutory term) for the developer.
In this instance, the ZBA has the additional decision to make, namely as to whether to invoke the town’s current “safe harbor” status under G. L. c. 40B, which allows the ZBA to deny the application outright.
So the ZBA decision will need to be a political balancing act by the ZBA members between a desirable, needed project that can apparently only be economically done with all 45 units, versus a project that many seem to feel is generally out of scale with the existing neighborhood. It would be a much easier decision if the project was only two stories tall – I spoke to the developer about reducing it to two stories, and was told it cannot be done.
Further complicating the decision is the fact that the project is used by the Affordable Housing Trust’s projections as what is both necessary to keep the town within the 40B safe harbor while we get to the ultimate 10% affordable housing and to achieve the 10% affordable housing number that then provides ongoing safe harbor to the town. Therefore, denying this project would put the town back at risk in several years of unfriendly 40B projects, such as the Mega-B, and as long as the town if below the 10% Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI) level by even one unit, we are at risk from an unfriendly 40B of up to 200 units..
The Rosebay developer has already reduced the size and scale of the project some, as the result of a series of meetings with an ad hoc group of residents, mainly from the Planning Board and the Affordable Housing Trust. The recent positive memo from that group to the Board of Selectmen can be found on my blog.
The Medfield Housing Authority Director and board members were active and strong proponents for the project when it was discussed at the Board of Selectmen meeting Tuesday evening, making the points about how long their waiting list are for seniors seeking affordable housing and now much the 45 units of housing are therefore needed in town. That is an argument and a constituency that will be hard for the ZBA to ignore. Similarly, the neighbors have valid concerns about the size and scale of the proposal, as it would not be allowed there but for being a 40B project.
This presents a true Hobson’s choice for the ZBA – does is disappoint the neighbors, or does it disappoint the seniors, the Medfield Housing Authority and put the town at risk for unfriendly 40B’s. Perhaps the ZBA can craft an acceptable compromise.
Posted in Affordable housing / 40B, Seniors
Yesterday I had an informative telephone call from Brian McMillin, the developer of Rosebay, about my prior blog post wherein I stated that he preferred to make design changes to the project within the ZBA comprehensive permit process, and then in response to my outreach to her for a status update on the ad hoc group, an emailed MEMO from Town Planner, Sarah Raposa.
Contrary to my prior understanding, I learned that the ad hoc group had made substantial progress in getting changes made to the design, which are enumerated in the MEMO. I also learned from Brain McMillin that none of my own personal suggestions from having studied the plans this week for how to make it a two story project would work, if it is going to remain a 45 unit project.
This is the conclusion stated in the MEMO:
Finally, I note that our fellow residents who so kindly served on this ad hoc group, Greg Sullivan, Todd Trehubenko, and Jim Brand, have tremendous professional experience in the real estate development and design area, so our town got truly first rate, high quality professional input in this process.
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Posted in Affordable housing / 40B, Development, Downtown, Seniors
See the full comprehensive permit application the town website, via this link.
The Select Board will need to decide soon whether to invoke our safe harbor where the developer, Brian McMillin, has refused, to date, to reduce the mass and bulk of the proposed development. We need to claim that safe harbor at the outset of the ZBA process, if we want to claim it at all. I understand that Brian McMillin wants to deal with any such such size and bulk changes within the context of the comprehensive permit application process. I expect that to be an agenda topic at our July 30 meeting.
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Posted in Affordable housing / 40B, Development, Seniors, Zoning
Many towns are now providing some property taxes relief for seniors. I think Sudbury was the first to initiate doing so and got special legislation to allow the town to help its economically more needy seniors by shifting part of their taxes to the rest of the residents.
At the Massachusetts Selectmen Association meeting I attended Saturday I spoke with Jonathan, a Wakefield Select board member (it is a 7 member board), learned they are doing so too, and he got me information on their program from their Assessor (copy attached below).
First, below are my notes from when I spoke with the Sudbury Assessor and got its system. This is their PowerPoint from their town meeting: 2018 ATM Article 15 Senior Means Tested Exemption Presentation
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Telephone call to Cynthia Gerry, Assessor – assessors@sudbury.ma.us | (978) 639 – 3393
a. 2012 special legislation
b. Renewed a couple of times
c. In place through FY21
d. Senior means program
e. Linked to circuit breaker
f. Long time resident who qualify for circuit breaker can qualify for property tax relief
g. Well received
h. FY14 was first year
i. Average of about 110 applicants
j. Not funded by overlay, so residential exemption funded
k. Benefit cap was at 0.5% of total levy
l. The Board of Selectmen can increase it to 1%, but have not gone that high
m. $400K last year, about 0.5%
n. Pay about 10% of circuit breaker income plus 10% of circuit breaker income
o. Asset component to legislation, but vague and up to the board of assessors to use
i. No set limit
ii. Do get a financial statement
p. Deferral of RE taxes
i. Age 60
ii. Income matches circuit breaker ($86K)
iii. 2% rate
iv. Mortgage companies will not agree, as town becomes first lien holder
q. She will email me info
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Second, this is the email from the Assessor for Wakefield, who appears to also be the Asessor for Reading, describing his program –
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Hey Pete and Jonathan,
Yup, I did this in Reading and we’re going to do it in Wakefield. I can’t count the number of friends and colleagues that have reached out to me on this important topic.
Reading plan is simple:
Senior must receive the Senior Circuit Breaker Income Tax Credit. Pls see state guidelines.
Senior is 65 and co-applicant at least 60
Own and occupy home in the town for 10 years.
No other significant assets (tough to define as it’s one of those ‘I’l know it when I see it’ things, second home, etc)
In Reading, the benefit is anywhere from 50% to 200% of their CB credit.
Cost is shifted onto the Residential class of property
Wakefield is similar except that the credit is simply a 100% match. No disrespect intended but politics and taxes don’t mix
My models rely on receipt of the CB Credit. I did this because it’s already a state sponsored means test. Any changes like house value, assets, etc. would result in a local means test like a couple of towns have. I have about 650 people that receive the CB credit in each town. In Reading for FY 2018 195 applied and 183 were approved at 200% relief but, too much relief has an unintended consequence whereby some folks lost their CB credit the following year. FY 2019 Reading did 150% and 177 received it. I anticipate more folks being eligible for Fy 2020. Moreover, since it involves a shift in the tax rate, the application time is the month of August to allow me enough time for tax rate computation.
Hope this helps and feel free to email any further questions that you may have.
Best,
Victor
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Posted in Affordable housing / 40B, Seniors
FROM HESSCO THIS AFTERNOON –
Dear Board of Selectmen,
As your Area Agency on Aging and Aging Services Access Point I wanted to share HESSCO’s latest reports. Attached please find the 2018 Annual Report for HESSCO and a Medfield-specific Community Impact Statement. We are making a new effort to ensure that our community leaders are aware of our efforts within their town. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or comments.
Sincerely,
Sheryl Leary
Director of Planning and Community Development
HESSCO
One Merchant Street
Sharon, MA 02067
781-784-4944 (TTY)
Fax: 781-784-4922
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Posted in Select Board matters, Seniors