City aims to raise housing stock

This compact city of 8.2 square miles and 25 parks has a steep hurdle to clear: building affordable housing for its residents.

If the state approves it, the developer of the former Davenport schoolhouse, which will have four condominiums and three houses, could hold a lottery as early as this month for the right to purchase a three-bedroom condo for $165,000, far below the market price.

That condo will help Medford inch toward its goal for affordable housing. The Chapter 40B law mandates that 10 percent of every community's housing meet the state's criteria of affordable, and Medford stands at 7.2 percent. With little land available for development, progress in boosting the supply of affordable housing has been sluggish, and city officials see every additional unit -- like the Davenport's -- as a victory.

But the playing field could change markedly with initiatives at the local level and proposals to change Chapter 40B in the State House.

Currently, in communities that haven't reached the 10 percent level, a development can bypass most local zoning requirements if 25 percent of its units are set aside for low- and moderate-income buyers. Legislation proposed on Beacon Hill would raise the requirement to 50 percent for these buyers. (Apartment projects can count all of their units as affordable if 25 percent of them are affordable.) The revised regulations also would also give communities more power to choose developments that meet their density and traffic needs.

The Joint Committee on Housing has proposed the changes, and the full Legislature could review them in the coming months.

"We are sort of at another stage of housing" that calls for a revision of the law, Senator Harriette Chandler, a committee chairwoman and Democrat from Worcester, said of the 1969 law, which had the effect of promoting apartment developments. "We are growing as a state, and people are more interested in owning their house."

At the local level, Medford's supply of affordable housing could pick up, thanks to the city's own efforts.

Amid Medford's recent boom in school construction, the city has sold three former school buildings for residential development. These projects will yield four units offered at below-market rates from a pool of 30 condominiums, apartments, townhouses and houses that will be sold more competitively. And there are five other school buildings yet to sell.

"It's critical to have affordable housing, especially in a city where the price of housing is rising dramatically," said Mayor Michael J. McGlynn. "That's why the reuse committee is looking closely at affordable housing in the use of these school buildings," he said of the panel appointed to review the proposals for the former schools.

But the city remains cautious on how it will reach the 10 percent level, McGlynn said. "It's very tough for cities to get there, and even though you are densely populated, you have to balance the affordable housing versus destroying the neighborhood," he said.

Lauren DiLorenzo, director of Medford's office of community development, said the biggest housing spree she remembers in her 20 years with the city occurred during the economic boom of the '80s. Most of Medford's current stock of 1,589 affordable units were built with federal and state money then, and a good number were set aside for the elderly.

After that, though, "things died and nobody wanted to build," DiLorenzo said. Now ensnarled in a recession, the city wants residential projects "that people from Medford can buy and stay in Medford," she said. "Everything else that you produce that's not affordable is a setback."

In the Boston area, market-priced housing is out of reach for many people. A person can earn up to $62,650 a year in Greater Boston and up to $56,500 in Lawrence and still be eligible for affordable housing.

DiLorenzo said that most people earn less than those levels, "so this is affecting a huge number of people."

Although Medford is largely built up, the city is looking for other ways to increase its housing stock. It has worked with regional entities such as the North Suburban Consortium, a group that has built, with federal funding, affordable housing in Medford and six other communities. It also collaborated with Tri-City Family Housing, which is constructing 19 units for homeless families to occupy on a long-term basis in Medford, Malden, and Everett.

This year, city officials will seek federal and state grants to help build residential projects in the former schools. The city also will draft a five-year housing plan that addresses needs and available funding. The federal government requires this of sizable communities like Medford that receive annual community block grants to revitalize neighborhoods, expand affordable housing, and support other initiatives that help low- and moderate-income residents.

In the State House, Governor Mitt Romney and House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran have promised to tackle the state's housing shortage.

In his State of the State Address this month, Romney spoke of the need to reform Chapter 40B and expressed support for creating "new laws that remove the barriers to building more housing." On several occasions, the governor has reiterated his goal of doubling the number of annual housing starts to about 32,000 by 2006, the last year of his term.

At the same time, an independent group called the Commonwealth Housing Task Force is proposing on Beacon Hill that communities create "overlay zoning districts" in transit stops, town centers and industrial sections -- areas not normally designated for residential development. The state could help create 30,000 new apartments and houses this way, by offering cities and towns a number of financial incentives such as fully funding the education of every child living in these new developments.

It would cost the state over 10 years about $60 million, said Edward Carman, one of the members of the task force, "60 million, which is only 2 percent of what is being paid for education."

Carman said the overlay district idea stemmed partly from Westford, which adopted the zoning concept four years ago so that a developer could convert an old mill into a residential complex with up to 180 apartments for rent. Westford has less than 2 percent of affordable housing stock; the project is pending approval by the Board of Selectmen.

Chandler said the task force's proposal gives communities a framework to work with. But measures of this magnitude --even the governor's initiative -- can't go very far with the existing Chapter 40B regulations.

"You can't have affordable housing until you have an affordable housing law that communities can comply with," Chandler said. "All of these are interesting ideas -- they are kind of the frosting, and we are building the foundation."

Angelica Medaglia can be reached at medaglia@globe.com