Image courtesy of Stantec Architecture and DREAM Collaborative
Boston’s first-in-the-nation fair housing zoning law is already influencing key elements of the city’s largest proposed development, Dorchester Bay City, as Accordia Partners spells out how its affordable housing strategy will exceed what’s typically expected in new projects.
“Everyone was aware this was coming or if they weren’t, they should have been, especially given the moment,” said Kirk Sykes, Accordia’s co-managing director. “It’s a good time to create change, but we were trying to be innovative before we were required to be.”
The fair housing zoning amendment which awaits final approval in early 2021 has shaped Accordia’s approach to affordable housing at its 34-acre Dorchester Bay City – which could include 1,740 housing units – and how it can generate wealth for neighborhood residents through real estate ownership.
Accordia and its partner Ares Management offer to contribute $10 million to an anti-displacement fund, potentially in partnership with a local nonprofit, to expand first-time homebuyer assistance programs. The focus on home ownership addresses one of the notorious findings of a 2015 Federal Reserve Bank of Boston study, which pegged the median net worth of Black Bostonians at $8.
“The majority of anyone’s net worth is coming from real estate, but we haven’t had participation from people of color in the GI Bill and the challenges from redlining,” Sykes said. “Generational wealth can’t be accrued. We’re looking for diverse homeowners to address the wealth gap.”
Median condominium sale prices in Dorchester have doubled since 2012, according to data from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, and hit $490,000 in November.
Accordia simultaneously is pledging additional financial contributions and stepped-up affordability guidelines for the on-site housing, to be built on the former Bayside Expo Center site and an office property on Morrissey Boulevard. Instead of the minimum 13 percent affordable units on-site, Accordia started off with a 15 percent floor, equating to 261 units. The average income maximum for those units will be set at 60 percent of area median income, or $57,150, compared with the standard 70 percent.
And it’s offering to front-load its $56.4 million housing linkage payment – which is $17.2 million higher than required – to be paid at the issuance of building permits, rather than being spread over seven years.
As Feds Step Back, Boston Increases Oversight
Boston’s new zoning rules seek to revive the goals of the Obama administration’s affirmatively furthering fair housing regulation, which required local communities to submit reports on how their land-use policies discourage housing discrimination. The Trump administration revoked the rule in June, calling its 92-question grading tool costly and ineffective.
District 1 City Councilor Lydia Edwards lobbied for Boston to add fair housing tests to its zoning, citing the rapid gentrification of her East Boston district in recent years. Median condo prices in East Boston have more than doubled since 2015 and the year-to-date median sale price hit $562,000 in November, according to The Warren Group.
At the same time, Edwards extracted larger affordability components from Suffolk Downs developer HYM Investment Group, including some negotiated the same day in September as the BPDA’s approval of the 10.5 million-square-foot project including 10,000 apartments and condos.
Accordia Partners’ proposed Dorchester Bay City is an early test of the steeper requirements placed on developments by the city’s fair housing zoning amendment. Image courtesy of Stantec Architecture and DREAM Collaborative
A ‘Predictable’ Guide for Developers
Sonal Gandhi, the BPDA’s deputy chief of staff, said the new rules will provide developers with “clear, consistent, predictable and fair” guidelines on what is required of them to gain approvals.
To gauge displacement risks by address, the BPDA will furnish developers with neighborhood data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey including percentage of renters and subsidized housing units, median income, percentages of income-restricted housing stock and household sizes.
Developers, in turn, will be required to provide a two-year snapshot of the property’s history, including whether the property is occupied by either residential or commercial tenants, current vacancy rate and any evictions or other reasons for tenants’ recent departures.
Prior to approval, developers will be required to pick at least one out of 10 “intervention options” to meet fair housing goals, such as providing more affordable units than the city’s standard 13 percent minimum, lowering the qualification for affordable units below the standard 70 percent of area median income and including more three-bedroom units to grow the city’s stock of family housing.
And developers are required to pick at least one marketing strategy for diverse populations, such as preferences for housing voucher holders or first-time homebuyers. Projects in neighborhoods with high displacement risk or a history of exclusion would face additional requirements, such as restrictions on non-owner-occupied units.
The fair housing amendment has sailed through unanimous votes of the city council and Boston Planning & Development Agency directors, and now awaits final approval by the Boston Zoning Commission.
Steve Adams
Enhanced Help for First-Time Homebuyers
Sykes said a potential partner in the anti-displacement fund is Dorchester-based Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, which offers a two-year-old first-time homebuyer assistance program offering matching grants to buyers earning 100 percent or less of the area median income. The program received grant funding from Boston Children’s Hospital and the city of Boston.
Residents who attend a first-time homebuyer course are eligible for grants of up to $7,500 toward housing purchases in Boston. The program currently has 150 participants and has contributed to 11 home purchases with average prices of $392,000 since its launch in 2019.
“Most everyone wants to stay in the city,” said Symone Crawford, MAHA’s director of home ownership education. “Unfortunately, the housing crisis is just not allowing people to realize that dream. Having developers be responsible for and be part of the solution, instead of part of the problem, the better it will be for people who have been systematically disenfranchised.”
