40B Handbook

[jlau...@comcast.net]

In the interests of an informed discussion, I would respectfully suggest that we all have a look at the "Chapter 40B Handbook for Zoning Boards of Appeal" issued by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development.  Here is the link:

https://www.mhp.net/assets/resources/documents/Ch.-40B-Handbook-for-Zoning-Boards-of-Appeal.pdf

It contains, among other things, the required timetable for a 40B override of local zoning and permitting requirements (p.  16), as well as a full list of the three statutory "safe harbor" grounds  (page15) and seven regulatory "safe harbor" grounds (pages 15 and 17), any one of which suffices to exempt a city or town from Section 40B.  

Within this decade, the City has in two cases asserted, without challenge,  that it meets one of the statutory minima for "safe harbor" exemption from 40B: namely, that "low or moderate income housing exists on more than 1.5 percent of the community's total land area zoned for residential, commercial or industrial use."  

A meticulously reliable contributor to this list, Merit Porter, has researched these two cases elsewhere on the list. 

Note that the developer (p.9) is encouraged to meet with neighbors--and specifically with abutters-- outside the hearing process.  

Lee

  

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Josiah Lee Auspitz
17 Chapel Street 

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Josiah Lee Auspitz
17 Chapel Street 

Somerville, MA 02144 

Landline phone: 617-628-6228 fax: 617-628-9441

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