Westford Planning Board Supports Town of Norton's Proposed 40B Reform

A Norton Town Meeting Warrant Article is gaining traction in another community.

Earlier this week, the Westford Planning Board unanimously moved to recommend to the Selectmen that Westford support the town of Norton in its efforts in getting the state legislature to help with a home rule petition regarding affordable housing, also known as 40B housing due to its chapter in Massachusetts state law.

Designed to help towns maintain stock of affordable housing for lower income individuals, the law allows developers to supercede certain local bylaws in municipalities that have less than 10 percent of its housing defined as affordable.

Opponents of the law have claimed this lack of local oversight can cause unforeseen stresses on local infrastructure.

In the case of Norton, the town is not entirely sure if it has met the 10 percent threshold, something Westford Affordable Housing Committee chairman Paul Cully sympathizes with.

"They’re at a point where a project put a shovel in the ground that met their ten percent then all of the sudden, because the shovel hasn’t gone in the ground, two more projects came in and said ‘we want our turn’, which puts them up to 16 percent, which is a serious problem for their infrastructure,” he said.

While opinions on the board varied on what the right path for addressing the 40B threshold should be, they all concluded that clarification would be helpful, with Planning Board member Dennis Galvin going as far as saying the current 40B rules are "a solution in search of a problem."

“There’s no definitive standard for what constitutes affordable housing," said Galvin. "So whatever the town does to keep in compliance with that program, the state can just move the bar again.”