Norton Thinking About Chapter 40B Reform

Selectmen voted 5-0 Thursday to allow a new town meeting warrant article in May that would allow the town to seek special Norton-only legislation concerning Chapter 40B, helping Norton to fill its quota.

The Chapter 40B Affordable Housing statute in Massachusetts requires at least 10 percent of the town’s available housing be what the state has deemed low-cost.

Currently, Norton has 6,707 units of housing available in the town and would need 671 affordable units. Right now, there are 405 eligible units of housing (or units under construction with eligibility). The Subsidized Housing Inventory determines a unit’s eligibility.

Norton town counsel Ilana Quirk said the town of Norton has an additional 310 units of affordable housing in planning, but those don’t count in the SHI after a year if by that time they don’t have a building permit. 

The warrant article at the special town meeting would, if passed by a counted majority, allow the town to approach state legislators with the legislation that would allow Norton to count those 310 additional units if they are allowed to get a building permit and have not yet obtained one.

Quirk said with the town compliant with the Chapter 40B 10 percent in affordable housing, it would be able to outright say no to a developer. The town then would not be in the situation it is currently in with the White Family House, a historical building hundreds of years old that may be demolished to make way for a Chapter 40b project.