According to The Brookline Tab Chestnut Hill Realty withdrew its Chapter 40B eligibility letter to MassDevelopment to get approval to build a 271-unit housing complex with 55 affordable units on Feb. 15. But on Tuesday, March 5, Chestnut Hill Realty revealed that they would be filing a new eligibility letter for a “revised development.”

Hancock Village, Brookline’s largest rental property, may undergo drastic changes in the upcoming months.

Chestnut Hill Realty has filed a Chapter 40B application to MassDevelopment, a state real estate agency, in an effort to circumvent Brookline’s local zoning bylaws.

According to the Brookline Tab, the company hopes to begin expanding Hancock Village by constructing 12 new buildings that would allow 271 new housing units. The Brookline Board of Selectmen is opposing this expansion and has submitted a statement to MassDevelopment.

Chapter 40B was enacted in 1969 to address the statewide shortage of affordable housing by reducing barriers created by local municipal building permit approval processes, local zoning and other restrictions.

Its goal is to encourage the creation of affordable housing in all communities throughout the commonwealth. To be eligible for the 40B application, a developer must plan to produce significant affordable housing units within a town which has affordable housing units numbering less than 10 percent of its total housing units.

Units that are deemed “affordable,” in the case of Hancock Village, rent for up to 80 percent of the metropolitan median household income, which for the Boston metropolitan populace is $52,792, according to the United States Census Bureau.

CHR had previously been denied developing rights by Brookline’s town committee. It has since tried to bypass those restrictions via a 40B project. According to Brookline Patch, CHR claims it should have full access to 40B privileges because if its expansion proposal were allowed, it would provide 55 new units of affordable housing in Brookline, a town which has less than 10 percent affordable housing at present.

“This new project will go a long way towards the town’s goal of creating new affordable housing,” said CHR President Edward Zucker in an Aug. 10 press release. “Also, since there is so little land available for housing in Brookline, using some of the extra space at Hancock Village for additional housing is an example of smart growth.”

The Brookline Board of Selectmen, the executive branch of Brookline’s municipal government, has written a formal response to CHR’s 40B application and has submitted it to MassDevelopment. Board of Selectmen Chair Betsy Dewitt, the official author of the document, said she is opposed to possible further development of Hancock Village.

According to Dewitt, the town does a better job constructing and providing affordable housing than would CHR in its new development.

“One of the ironies here is that Brookline has just been recently cited as a community with a very successful and substantial record in creating affordable housing,” Dewitt said. “We just completed a redevelopment on Fisher Hill, and we’ve added some 32 units of affordable housing. This was done by the town at the town’s initiative without any of this 40B.”

Board of selectmen member Ken Goldstein grew up in Hancock village and is a lifelong Brookline resident. He said he shares opinions similar to those of Dewitt.

“The town has actively been pursuing and committing itself to affordable housing for a long time. We’re a lot closer to that 10 percent threshold than you might have realized,” Goldstein said. “Last year, we were at 8.7 percent and we’re constantly adding more affordable housing in the town.”

Goldstein said that the opposition is not because the town is against affordable housing or against 40B projects.

“The owner of the Hancock Village project didn’t set out to do a 40B project there, they set out to basically double the size of the Hancock Village apartments,” Goldstein said. “This isn’t being done because of an altruistic desire to bring affordable housing to the town, it’s being done as a threat, in retribution for the fact that the town wouldn’t cooperate on a market rate development that they were after.”

Goldstein also said that Brookline’s methods of providing affordable housing were superior to those of CHR because the town had been able to integrate affordable units into the more “expensive” community in Brookline.

“I don’t think it’s right to segregate affordable housing and put it all in one particular, clumped-in area of the town. I think affordable housing should be spread throughout the town.” Goldstein said. “The town has done a really good job of doing that. But, this new project takes Hancock Village, which is already different from the rest of South Brookline, and it makes it into a single, separate area that’s qualified as affordable housing. I don’t think that’s the optimal model for affordable housing expansion in Brookline.”

Additionally, many Brookline residents fear the possible impacts of the expansion on the nearby Baker School, whose zoning includes Hancock Village. According to Baker School Principal Mary Brown, an influx of new students to the school could be overwhelming.

“We are at capacity at Baker; we’ve utilized every inch of space, and we’ve reclaimed spaces that had previously not been used for learning,” Brown said. “I couldn’t even imagine how we would be able to absorb any more students. There’s just no room.”

According to Goldstein, there is no exact date by which the Brookline Board of Selectmen expects to hear back from MassDevelopment. The board is currently waiting to learn the results of the preliminary ruling.

Nate Birch can be contacted at [email protected].