Have you checked out the Sustainable Neighborhoods Working Group’s recommendations to increase affordability in Somerville? This group was convened by Mayor Curtatone late in 2014 to look for innovative ways to increase and incentivize affordable housing.
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Committee of residents, experts, advocates, and industry professionals develop bold and innovative recommendations to address housing affordability
SOMERVILLE -From a proposal to establish a 1 percent real estate transfer fee to the expansion of tenants purchase rights, the recommendations in a report released this week by the City of Somerville Sustainable Neighborhoods Working Group propose innovative new approaches for increasing housing affordability for Somerville residents and families.
The 26-member Working Group, established by Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone as part of his Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative, comprises community members with a wide range of experience and perspectives on housing affordability. They include affordable housing experts, resident stakeholders, community advocates, and finance and real estate professionals. Their clear and urgent directive from the Mayor was to review six proposals from the City and to develop and propose bold and innovative ideas that will support the City’s efforts to
Protect and preserve existing affordable housing,
Expand the City’s resources for creating more housing,
Address the need for middle-income housing for working families.
In transmitting the report on behalf of the Working Group, Co-Chairs Alderman Mark Niedergang and housing expert Dana LeWinter commented that, “It gives us great pleasure to report that SNWG members have worked creatively, constructively, and diligently to do exactly that.”
“Somerville must lead the way on housing affordability,” said Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone. “We are up against daunting market forces that are driving housing costs upward regionwide, and coming up with solutions is going to require innovative thinking and an all-hands-on-deck commitment from the community. I want to thank the Sustainable Neighborhoods Working Group for putting such thoughtful and bold proposals before us. Our next steps are to devote City Hall’s resources to thoroughly analyzing these recommendations and getting extensive public input on them.”
Recommendations
The recommendations of the Working group are summarized below. The full report can be downloaded in this PDF. All items were fully recommended unless marked as a “qualified” recommendation or otherwise noted.
Resource Recommendations
Real Estate Transfer Fee: Apply an approximately 1% fee on all real estate transactions (with exemptions for certain transactions) to support affordable housing efforts.
Linkage Fee: Commission a Nexus study to determine an appropriate increase to the existing linkage fee, which is currently charged to larger developments to support affordable housing. Also index the linkage rate, reduce the threshold size of projects from 30,000 to 20,000 square feet, and charge a lower linkage rate to projects below 30,000 than those above.
Short-term Rental Policies: Form a ‘new economy’ task force. First task to be review of regulations for short-term rentals (such as Airbnb) that remove units from the conventional rental market. Levy lodging tax on short-term rentals once state law allows.
Ch. 40R Smart Growth Zoning Overlay: (Qualified recommendation) Pursue a 40R overlay district only if the SomerVision housing goal is increased and commercial/open space goals can be achieved and if as-of-right development is allowed in transformative districts.
District Improvement Financing (DIF) Set-Aside Policy for Affordable Housing: (Qualified recommendation) Explore policy for future DIFs for the construction of affordable housing. (A DIF involves the City borrowing money via bonds that will be paid off with future tax revenue generated by new development.)
– See more at: http://www.somervillema.gov/news/sustainable-neighborhoods-working-group-issue-affordable-housing-report#.dpuf