Housing & Affordability

• Winchester has started to make progress on developing housing, which is critical to managing the affordability crisis that grips Winchester and most of Greater Boston. Thoughtfully increasing our housing stock and the diversity of our housing options will help meet the needs of all of our residents.

• Recent developments have moved our affordable housing share (SHI) from ~2% to ~5%, which has brought us closer to the 10% target set by the state. I support projects like the proposal on Cross Street that fit well into the character of their neighborhoods, and will work to help craft holistic solutions to projects such as Washington & Swanton.

• More broadly, I believe:
  

  • The Select Board, in partnership with the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, and Town Meeting, should work to develop housing on vacant parcels – both market rate and affordable. 

  • Winchester responded thoughtfully to the MBTA Communities Act (Section 3A), with a plan designed by the Planning Board that allowed our Town to comply with the state law and allow for more market-rate housing. I also support the North Main Street rezoning to encourage “mixed-use” development with ground floor commercial space and residential units above.

  • The Town should aim to meet its state-mandated affordable housing goals (under the law known as 40B) by achieving either 10% total affordable share or adding 0.5% annually. While moving the town from ~5% to 10% will take time, we should work to create a pipeline of design-centric and moderately-sized developments to achieve 0.5% annual growth (approximately 40 units per year town-wide). Failing to achieve our goals can lead to “hostile” projects where the Town has minimal control over the scale and character of the development, and we should instead align on a plan as a Town that thoughtfully and strategically grows our housing stock to meet the needs of our residents.