Housing Implementation Committee

Meeting date: 
Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Town of Princeton, Mass. -- Online Meeting

Housing Implementation Committee Minutes 3/13/2024, 9:00 am

Present:      Co-chairs Carla Zottoli and Deb Cary

Jennifer Shenk

Jennifer Greene, Advisory Board

Barbara Guthrie, Council on Aging

Ann Neuburg, Planning Board

Call to Order: 9:02

Administrative: Carla: Motion to approve minutes of the 2-23-2024 meeting as submitted.

Ann: second

Vote: unanimous approve.

Ann: reminded members that as Clerk, she must retain ALL emails regarding the committee, and requested permission to add a line “Topics for discussion not reasonably foreseen” to allow discussion (and the minutes) to wander off topic and to accommodate a late-breaking news. Sherry Patch has OK’d the practice.

Discussions: Number of Rental Units

Jen S. may not have run the report, will check, and had a caveat: rental units are in such short supply that landlords (as many as half) don’t use listings to get new tenants. Her report will document only listings.

Deb: it will still be useful data.

Housing Implementation Committee purpose and charge

This is the text that will appear on the PHIC town webpage (and re-used in informational materials). Our draft will go to Sherry, who approves it.

TO DO: Ann will edit Debs’ draft preserving references to bylaws.

Village Overlay District (VOD) Bylaw

Allows mixed use of businesses on the ground floor with apartments overhead. Site plan review required.

Carla: what does site plan review mean?

Ann: Site plans reviews include lighting, parking, setbacks, access, and frontage (Planning Board issues). Board of Health does water/septic. Building Inspector does safety. Princeton Planning Board is friendly to developers. They welcome informal reviews before a plan is submitted.

Carla: developers see Princeton as a difficult place to get things done. How can we combat that reputation? Jen S.: her employer has built multiple houses in Princeton and considers the town easy to deal with.

Deb: how about a workshop for homeowners and landowners about the various bylaws so people understand they have options.

Review Open Space Residential Design (OSRD) Bylaw

Ann: OSRD allows homes to be clustered around a shared driveway while preserving part of the parcel as Open Space. Princeton has one active OSRD (Sadies Paradise, Rocky Pond Rd.)

All subdivision plans for more than 4 units must justify why they cannot develop as an OSRD. Two developers withdrew preliminary sketches for 5-unit projects and re-submitted as 4-unit projects so as to avoid OSRD.

All About ADUs

Ann: requested permission to contact Sherry and CMRPC re: any funding for CMRPC to help us put on a “All About ADUs” workshop?

Carla: what should the workshop look like? Ann: What ADUs are, the rules of the road, and creative ideas, and connecting with funding.

Deb: uneasy with involving outsiders.

ADUs and the Board of Health

Jen: Board of Health approval is key. Have any members gone to Board of Health meetings? Deb: visited a meeting, and they had questions. BoH is waiting for PHIC to appear. If more than 2 PHIC members attend, an agenda is required. Next meeting is 3-18. Ask to get on agenda for next meeting?

Deb: Board of Health would be first hurdle for ADUs and development on our list of interesting parcels.

Jen: will get on agenda for the April (?) meeting.

ADUs and Tiny Homes

Carla: pointed to other towns that have pages devoted to ADUs. Is there a correlation between ADUs and tiny homes? Many towns allow tiny homes as ADUs.

General discussion of tiny homes in Princeton. Allowed, but subject to the same Board of Health and other requirements (frontage) as larger homes, therefore uneconomic to build.

Carla referred members to the Salem, Mass. webpages about ADU tax breaks that also make the ADU count on Salem’s SHI.

Ann: is this the carrot to get people to register existing ADUs and construct new ones?

Jen S.: Maybe not. The tax break on property taxes is a tiny fraction of the cost of constructing an ADU. Renting generates reportable income and ADU occupants are often family members; both leading to no rent being reported.

General discussion of tax breaks, rental vouchers, current rental housing.

General discussion of ADU impact on property taxes.

ADUs Next Steps

Ann: inquire about funds to help host workshop.

Affordable Housing Act

Deb: no news to report.

Review List of Land Parcels

Deb: as of last meeting, it was agreed to focus on the parcels in/around Post Office Place and others.

  •  Redwood/Sharon (Ketonen): 20.5 acres. Carla: powerlines run across back of property. Deb: parcel still of interest as it may soon be under town ownership. Currently in tax title process that will take a couple more years to complete. Carla: may not be feasible site.

Next step: approach Conservation Committee about parcel. Has anyone inquired? Do they already have an opinion?

  •  Worcester Road (Mcall):100-acre parcel of which the front ~28.96 acres is of interest for development. Deb: City of Worcester is interested in the backland (waterway) and is visiting the site for an initial assessment, the first step to making an offer. Worcester is also interested in land owned by Jacobson. Worcester may not be interested in the land abutting Worcester Road.
  •  Worcester Road (Jacobson/JAKAY): 76.45 acres with some wetlands. Worcester Water and Open Space are very interested in protecting this parcel.
  •  Wheeler Road (Ayars): 18.0 and 49 acres could be combined with land locked parcel (Roper) next door. Next action step: have the Conservation Committee do an evaluation of the site. Next step: approach Conservation Committee about parcel. Has anyone inquired? Do they already have an opinion?
  •  366 Mirick Road (EAJ Family Trust): 100 acres. New addition to the list.

Deb: How does this correspond to the MBTA Adjacent Zone?

Ann TO DO: distribute draft of Princeton’s MBTA Adjacent Bylaw.

  •  Sterling/Etsy Road (Calcia) 10.3 and 58.8 acres. Deb: moved this parcel up in priority because it is both large and of interest to the state/DCR.

Deb TO DO: contact DCR to learn about their level of interest.

  •  Carly: contact landowners by letter
  • Deb: Intertown Chapter 61 workshop was very successful and touched the same landowners, Initial

Next steps:

  •  Choose top 5-10 landowners on the list and let them know what we are up to and that we are discussing their land. Contact landowners by letter and include our charter (once it’s done) and the Housing Plan.
  •  Contact Conservation Commission: do they have existing opinions about any parcels on the list? For parcels for which they have no opinion, and the landowner is interested, can we enlist them to do a preliminary opinion (NOT to include discussion of specific parcels)?

Next Meeting: March 27, 2024 10:07 am

Adjourn: Ann - Motion to adjourn

Carla - Second

Vote: unanimous aye

Adjourn at 10:07.

Referenced documents:

 

Respectfully Submitted Ann Neuburg