A group opposed to a planned housing expansion in South Brookline met at Edith C. Baker school on Jan. 9 at 7 p.m.
The group, Preserve Brookline, opposes Chestnut Hill Realty’s planned 192 unit expansion of Brookline’s Hancock Village. Thirty-nine of the units will be affordable housing.
The expansion could add up to 125 K-12 students to the Brookline school system, according to William Pu, a member of the Preserve Brookline steering committee.
BSPACE, he said, has not taken these additional students into account in their plans for future expansion of the high school.
“This is not about affordable housing,” Pu said. “We all are in favor of affordable housing, but we think this proposal is just taking the affordable housing law and using it to railroad over all of the town’s concerns.”
In August, Chestnut Hill Realty applied with MassDevelopment to build a 271-unit development through an alternative development plan called 40B, according to Pu.
However, CHR withdrew its application before the official decision. They then reapplied for a 192-unit 40B development that MassDevelopment approved on Oct. 18, 2013.
If a contractor uses a 40B, the project can bypass Brookline and Massachusetts zoning bylaws according to the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Law, Chapter 40B.
Developers in Brookline are eligible to apply for a 40B development because Brookline has less than 10 percent affordable housing units. 40B creates an incentive for contractors to create more affordable housing for the town.
Affordable housing is units only available to households earning less than 80 percent of the Boston median household income.
In this case, Chestnut Hill Realty chose to make at least 20 percent of the total units available to families earning less than 50 percent the median Boston income, according to Chestnut Hill Realty’s presentation to the zoning board of appeals.
In the mid-nineties, less than ten years after Chestnut Hill Realty purchased Hancock Village, the company converted all of Hancock Village’s 530 units of affordable housing to market rate price, making Brookline subject to 40B development, according to Pu.
The number of affordable housing units in Brookline is currently less than 10 percent; Chestnut Hill Realty plans to use 40B to add 39 affordable units along with 153 market price units.
Betsy DeWitt, Chair of the Board of Selectmen, said she was personally unhappy with the addition of housing and parking to Hancock Village’s greenbelt, its community open space.
“It has a very special design that follows the principles of something called a garden village,” DeWitt said. “It has an unusual status and is considered to be eligible to be on the register for national historical places.”
However, DeWitt said the zoning board of appeals may try to modify the planned additions to the greenbelt.
“The fact that it has historical significance will perhaps influence the board of appeals in their recommendations at the end,” she said.
DeWitt said she believes the proposed expansion will most likely be approved with conditions.
“Even if it gets through its approval process, it could still be three to five years before there is construction there,” DeWitt said. “We are talking about something that is in a process that could take a while.”
Alex Friedman can be contacted at [email protected].
