Thursday, January 25, 2001 Older Editions

Getting attention again: Affordable homes in Andover

By Adam Groff

With two comprehensive permit applications before the Zoning Board of Appeals and another on the way, affordable housing is again making headlines in Andover.

Within the past two weeks, the board has heard from AvalonBay Communities, which seeks a 152-unit apartment complex where a monastery now stands on River Road, and Joseph Zagarella, who wants to build 16 condominiums on less than an acre at Lowell Road and Wild Rose Drive. Residents in both neighborhoods, each zoned for single-family residences, fiercely oppose the applications, which could override local zoning under the state's Chapter 40B Comprehensive Permit Law, more commonly known as the "anti-snob zoning law." Developer Bill Perkins is also interested in building homes on land he owns in Ballardvale, off Dale Street, says Steve Colyer, planning director.

But what is the state of affordable housing in Andover? Housing and planning officials say that based on the number of applications for housing from people who qualify as moderate or low income, there is not enough here. On the other hand, while the amount of affordable housing in town is just below the state recommendation, it is higher than the state average.

The Comprehensive Permit Law was designed in 1969 to streamline the process of building affordable housing in communities where there is a perceived local need. "Local need" is defined in the law as a level of affordable housing - housing whose construction was subsidized by a state or federal program - below 10 percent of total housing units as recorded on the latest census. All but 23 communities in the state fall into this category, which allows developers to apply for a comprehensive permit if a certain proportion of the proposed units are then sold or rented at a fraction of the market rate.

According to the 1990 census, 9.03 percent of Andover's housing is affordable, placing the town just shy of the top 10 percent of towns in the state; the state average is 8.54 percent.

When a local board rejects or places conditions on a comprehensive permit application, the applicant has recourse to the state Housing Appeals Committee, which, when a town is below the 10-percent affordable housing level, may well side with the developer.

Colyer, the planning director, says he hopes that if a developer appealed to the state, Andover's proximity to the benchmark would demonstrate the town's good faith.

"I think Andover has been proactive," he says. "Compare (9.03 percent) to other communities like Andover." Andover has a higher percentage of affordable housing as defined by the state than every town bordering it except Lawrence, sometimes by a factor of two or more.

"Now the real question for me," says Colyer, "is if we get appealed, and we wind up before (HAC Chairman) Werner Lohe in Boston, will they take that into consideration."

Andover Housing Partnership Committee member Christopher Haynes is confident that they would. "I don't see the state having the political stomach to be siding with the developer against Andover," he says. He says that by closing on the 10 percent benchmark, the town has "secured the moral high ground," and can argue from a strong position in comparison to other affluent towns.

The Housing Partnership Committee was formed in 1987 to mediate between developers and residents in the face of a rash of comprehensive permit applications, but the body fell into disuse in the mid-1990s. In 1999, selectmen reconstituted the committee to pursue the town's goal of expanding affordable housing. The committee is scheduled to swear in three new members tonight, Thursday, expanding its membership to eight.

"Because of that work we did in the late '80s and early '90s, we're at the 9-to-10-percent mark," says Haynes. "Now we are in a position to continue to increase affordable housing, but on our own terms."

Beyond the numbers

As to the subjective question of whether Andover is really meeting its need for affordable housing, Colyer suggests taking state data with a grain of salt, because of the various standards used to determine "affordable housing."

"In certain subsidy programs," he says, "because of the way the subsidy operates, if the subsidy touches every unit in the project, all the units are counted" toward the affordability benchmark. In certain developments with affordable components, he says, specific units are not designated "affordable"; rather, a certain percentage of renters must meet the income qualifications (below 60 percent of the area median income qualifies as low income, and from 60 to 80 percent qualifies as moderate income), but they may live in any unit.

Because of this, while only 55 of the 220 units in Riverview Commons on Bulfinch Drive are subsidized, all 220 units count toward Andover's affordability total. While 42 of the 168 units in Brookside Estates on River Road are subsidized, all 168 are counted. This counting method artificially inflates Andover's 9.03 percentage, says Colyer.

"If you're trying to address housing needs in the real world, that 10 percent doesn't mean anything," he says.

Other housing officials agree.

"Andover probably does have more affordable housing than some other towns, but a lot of it is directed toward seniors and disabled, not families," says Andover Housing Authority Director Christine Metzemaekers. The AHA oversees five affordable housing sites in Andover, all of whose units are entirely subsidized, but Metzemaekers says that four of them are for the elderly, and only one, Memorial Circle, is for families.

"We have had to close our family waiting list, because we can't possibly help these people," she says. She says 600 families currently have applications on file for the 56 units at Memorial Circle, which is full.

"Right now it's the middle-income families that are locked out of housing in Andover," says Colyer, and Metzemaekers agrees. Both point to federal programs, such as Section 8 housing vouchers, that are available to low-income families but not to middle-income people. They also cite the high cost of land in Andover.

"The biggest impediment is land acquisition for people of modest means moving to town," says Metzemaekers. "The last time we had anything built by the housing authority was in 1982," she says, because of difficulty obtaining land.

"Even people we're giving vouchers to are having a hard time, because there isn't enough housing," she says. "I can't emphasize that enough. People have to live somewhere."