At the January 30th Haverhill City Council meeting, Councilors discussed a proposed inclusionary zoning ordinance. Under the ordinance, all new multifamily housing developments over 10 units are required to make at least 10% of their units affordable. An inclusionary development (multifamily development over 10 units) would require a special permit, with the City Council acting as the special permit granting authority (SPGA).
Developers may fulfill the affordability requirement in the following ways:
Low- and moderate-income units be constructed on sight and indistinguishably interspersed throughout the project. The affordable units must be equal in quality and character to the market level units
The SPGA may grant a developer a Special Permit to make a payment-in-lieu to the newly created affordable housing trust. The payment would be $35,000 for rental units and $50,000 for ownership units
If the developer chooses not to use the payment-in-lieu option, the SPGA may grant a density bonus of one additional unit in the development for every affordable unit in the development. The total number of additional units must not exceed 25% of the number of units otherwise permitted on the lot per dwelling unit requirements.
