State HAC Rejects Andover Planning Defense in 40B Appeal

In another setback to municipal planning efforts, the state Housing Appeals Committee overturned a local zoning board of appeals denial of a Chapter 40B comprehensive permit to construct 248 apartments in an office and industrial park in Andover.  The case is Hanover R.S., LP v. Andover ZBA, HAC No. 12-04 (Dec. 17, 2013).  

The ZBA’s denial was predicated on the incompatibility of siting a large housing community in an isolated part of town, where residential uses were otherwise prohibited under the Town’s zoning bylaw.  Andover’s defense was buttressed by its relatively successful track record in permitting affordable housing, just below the state’s 10% benchmark at 9.3%.

Consistent with most of its prior rulings on this subject, the Committee discounted Andover’s housing initiatives and master planning efforts, and found that despite the Town’s proximity to the 10% holy grail threshold and the legitimacy of the Town’s planning efforts, the “regional need for housing” still outweighed these concerns. Senate Bill 72, sponsored by Jamie Eldridge of Acton and pending in the Joint Housing Committee where he is the chair, would amend Chapter 40B to allow denials based on an incompatibility with an affordable housing plan, where the plan has designated a viable alternative location for the proposed project.  Senator Eldridge’s bill contains a number of other commonsense reforms to the statute.