Affordable Housing Rule Waived At Assembly Row Development

SOMERVILLE, MA – The developer behind a planned apartment complex at Assembly Row will not be required to allot 20 percent of its units for affordable housing. City officials waived the requirement for Federal Realty Investment Trust, which instead must make 16 percent of the project – 80 units – affordable, according to the Boston Globe.

Thirty-one of those units will be at the Assembly Row building, while Federal Realty will fund 49 elsewhere in the city, according to the Globe.

SEE ALSO: Assembly Row Development Deadlock Underscores Affordable Housing Debate

Thursday's decision brings to a close a longstanding debate between the developer and some in the community seeking to maintain the mixed-income aspect of Somerville. Federal Realty was eligible for the waiver because it had entered into a master planned agreement with the city prior to the raising of the affordable housing requirement for a building of that size from 12.5 percent to 20 percent.

The Board of Aldermen raised the requirement in 2016, close to 10 years after Federal Realty first proposed a master planned unit development for two blocks of Assembly Row.

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