Five-year plan in the offing that will address lack of affordable housing
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council, a regional planning agency, is working with the town to develop a Housing Production Plan (HPP) to help meet the community’s needs, with a focus on providing more senior- and family-friendly housing.
The MAPC is collaborating with Community Development and Planning Director Chris DiIorio, other town officials, and a recently created HPP Advisory Group to craft the plan.
Their charge is to create a catalog of existing types of housing in town, analyzing the data and Hull’s demographics to identify gaps in housing and determine what additional residential categories are needed.
Advisory group members include: Steven Greenberg, Irwin Nesoff, Donna Pursel, Matt McGonagle, Carl Ratzeff, and Harry Hibbard, with participation by the town’s building commissioner and Hull Redevelopment Authority Chair Bartley Kelly and DiIorio.
During a recent two-hour remote brainstorming meeting, the first public forum on the topic, the discussion centered on Hull’s overall housing needs and challenges, related potential strategies, and possible sites where more housing could be built.
“This plan will be the response to the town’s housing needs,” Greenberg said.
The purpose of the meeting was to review demographics and existing housing trends, discuss housing issues, review preliminary ideas, goals, and potential sub-areas in town, and gather community input with which to create a proactive housing document.
The end result will be a five-year 2021-2026 Housing Production Plan, funded by a state grant from the Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, to begin to address the lack of affordable housing in town and other housing-related issues.
HPPs proactively influence many aspects of development, including design, type, size, and location. The program affords local cities and towns such as Hull an opportunity to gather community input to create housing production goals, strategies, and mapped locations where additional housing that meets the needs of current and future Hull residents could be built that takes the state Department of Housing and Community Development’s affordable housing requirements into consideration.
Part of the discussion centered around the need for affordable housing among Hull’s growing senior population and also the lack of affordable family housing, as evidenced by the decreasing number of students enrolled in the Hull Public Schools.
Nesoff emphasized the importance of trying to achieve a balance between the need for senior housing “so folks who have been here a long time can remain in the community and the [desire] to attract younger families to Hull.”
A report presented by MAPC principal planner Carlos J. Montanez indicated that: the number of older citizens age 60 and over living in Hull is expected to increase from 36 percent in 2010 to 60 percent in 2030; 70 percent of Hull residents are homeowners and 30 percent are renters; and 37 percent of all Hull households are considered cost-burdened – that is, they spend a higher-than-recommended percentage of their income on housing.
DiIorio noted that a portion of the town’s Community Preservation Act funding is devoted to affordable housing. “The HPP will help guide us in our decisionmaking as to how to spend those funds,” he said.
Potential housing strategies identified by the advisory group include: direct renter household assistance; an owner-occupant rehabilitation program providing forgivable loans to homeowners to make critical upgrades to their houses, with a focus on fixing health and safety issues, deferred maintenance, and energy efficiency; exploring the possibility of accessory dwelling units; direct owner household and utility and weatherization assistance; a property tax credit/exemption for landlords; and enabling property to be zoned so as to allow multifamily housing, among others.
Judeth Van Hamm suggested including an affordable housing “green” strategy to make those units environmentally friendly.
Potential sites for new housing identified during an earlier advisory group meeting include: Memorial Middle School; the former Aquarium building; the Nantasket Avenue mini-golf/amusement center site, where a mixed-use development was earlier proposed; the Hull Redevelopment Authority property; 821-823 Nantasket Ave., where a moving and storage company is located; and a portion of land at Atlantic House Court, already the site of affordable housing for seniors. Some meeting participants suggested that other town-owned buildings be added to the list.
Under an HPP, potential new housing is not limited to vacant land but can include offering incentives to property owners for voluntary redevelopment through flexible zoning.
HRA member Dennis Zaia emphasized the importance of working with the MBTA to improve local bus service, which could be utilized in addition to ferry and train transportation. “I think there is the potential to make our community one that encourages people to age in place, not necessarily in their [longtime] homes, and [when the time is right] to sell them to young professionals to raise their families, which would help to stabilize our school system,” he said.
With regard to ferry and bus service, Polly Rowe said, “The MBTA is still not on a firm footing [even after receiving large amounts of financial assistance from the government], and those services are so fundamental to this town.”
Greenberg emphasized the importance of Hull maintaining local control, balancing environmental, density, and other issues. “This is where the rubber meets the road,” he said,
Montanez noted that an HPP can help communities explore how municipal zoning “can be more permissive to allow for more housing options.”
Advisory group member Donna Pursel, who is also a Select Board member, indicated she is enthusiastic about the possibility of constructing multifamily housing and the potential inclusion of an affordable housing component in some new developments.
In addition, she said, “We need to find ways to be creative with town-owned land that is buildable.”
Rowe noted the importance of considering the issue of density for new housing proposals. “I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer,” she said, “but I think that for some residents, it’s [already] like living in a can of sardines” in terms of how close together some of the houses are.
“This has been a really thoughtful conversation, covering many angles,” Montanez said as the meeting concluded.
The MAPC presentation will be posted on the town website. Another advisory group meeting and a second forum are planned and will be announced to the community to encourage widespread participation.
