Key provisions of S. 2311
 
Mandated “by-right” multi-family housing districts: S. 2311 would mandate every city and town to establish “by-right” zoning districts for multi-family housing, removing any special permit or local approval process except normal site plan review, with no provisions that these housing units meet the affordability needs of the community, and prohibiting communities from setting density provisions less than eight units per acre in rural communities and 15 units per acre in all other communities. The MMA is concerned that this provision will actually increase the cost of housing in cities and towns and make it harder to meet affordable housing targets because developers will pursue high-end developments that yield the highest profits.
 
Mandated “by-right” accessory apartments: S. 2311 would require every city and town to approve accessory apartments in all residential districts, granting homeowners “by-right” ability to add additions, separate buildings or property renovations as long as the accessory apartment is no larger than half of the entire structure, or 900 square feet, and meets building code standards, although cities and towns could cap accessory apartments to no more than 5 percent of the total non-seasonal housing units in the community.
 
Mandated “open space residential developments”: Every city and town would be required to approve “by-right” residential development projects with greater density if those projects are designed to preserve open space in or adjacent to the development. These are “compact” or “cluster” developments that are designed to allow for a portion of the land to remain undeveloped.
 
Inclusionary zoning: The MMA has been a champion of legislation to clearly authorize cities and towns to adopt inclusionary zoning bylaws and ordinances to require developers to include affordable housing as an important component of large projects. This would enable cities and towns to ensure that new developments help to expand the stock of affordable housing. S. 2311 does contain an inclusionary zoning provision, but would only allow inclusionary zoning in exchange for municipal concessions, such as allowing greater density, even if those concessions are not economically necessary for the project to advance. Communities that have already implemented inclusionary zoning ordinances would be forced to weaken their local policies to conform with S. 2311. Under the Senate bill, inclusionary zoning could not be applied to any developments that are submitted under the “by-right,” multi-family districts mandated in the bill. The MMA will be asking senators to remove any conditions or concessions on inclusionary zoning.
 
posted by Jeff Bennett