By Michelle Hillman. - Boston Business Journal
January 20-26, 2006
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Few cities or towns have taken advantage of a new state law designed to encourage denser development in sleepy suburbs where the subdivision reIgns.
Passed in June, Chapter 40R was designed to encourage, through financial incentives, developmentofmultifamily and singlefamily housing on smaller lots around transit nodes, town centers and vacant commercial or retail lots.
But many of the projects being proposed in the suburbs are for fewer than 20 units per acre and therefore would not qualify under Chapter 40R.
So far, 40R has not won many fans in communities where anything more than five units per acre can be considered too dense. In addition, 40R requires municipalities give up local control of their project in exchange for financial rewards of between $10,000 and $600,000, depending on the number of housing units constructed per project.
Suburban communities such as Sudbury, Wayland and Westborough still need to get used to the idea of putting multiple units on single lots, said Robert C. Buckley, senior partner at Riemer & Braunstien LLP, \vhich represents developers in Ashland and Westborough who are proposing smart growth-type projects around commuter rail stations. Unless developers can build up, like they do in Cambridge and Somerville, density is a hard sell in the suburbs, said Buckley. In Westborough, for instance, a 425-unit project had to be reduced to 326 units before the town would approve of the residential development on 44 acres.
Buckley said 40R will have to be tweaked before many suburbs will consider it a viable development tool.
"They view this as urbanization," said Buckley. "It's more of a culture shock."
While towns are desperate for more cash reserves, the fact that the legislation has not been widely adopted gives an indication of just how ingrained local permitting, planning and zoning processes are across the commonwealth.
Westwood is in the midst of planning and permitting to transform a blighted industrial area into a bastion of smart growth and lifestylecentered development where people can walk to the dry cleaners, coffee shop and other amenities.
The huge, 4 million-square-foot mixed-use development on U niversity Avenue in Westwood would be an ideal candidate for 40R, but the developer said he won't be applying for designation.
"I don't think those benefits are going to be used very much by communities," said Jay Doherty, president of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes of New England Inc.
Doherty's proposed project will transform 135 acres of industrial land and promises to be different than any type of project Massachusetts has seen. It will include office space, residential units, retail shops and restaurants.
Buckley said it's not the developers who are opposed to 40R and its caveats, it's the municipalities.
Still, the financial incentives offered as the carrot in 40R will not be enough for Westwood officials to bite, said Doherty.
MICHElLE HILLMAN IS the real estate reporter for the Boston Business Journal. She can be reached at mhillman@bizjournals.com.
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