Workforce Housing
by Jonathan Sycamore & Margaret Crisler,
Planning Board Members
This
article has been submitted at the Request of the Windham Planning Board in an
effort to educate the public on the zoning ordinance amendments that are being
recommended by the for 2012 Town Meeting. This is the third in a series
of articles published each week leading up to Town Meeting on March 13th
Risks to Windham if it
has no WFH Ordinance
Yet again,
the Windham Planning Board has worked diligently to compose a Workforce Housing
Ordinance which will meet the Town’s legal obligations to allow greater
opportunity for moderate priced housing to be built. If we do not pass this ordinance, developers can
go to the courts to obtain permission to build, without being compelled to
comply with Windham’s regulations, and with no say by abutters, or concerned
citizens. Without this ordinance, even
the Planning Board, ZBA, and other Town officials could be denied an
opportunity to participate.
Without this
ordinance, projects utilizing the workforce housing statute could be built with
MANY full price housing units crammed on a parcel barely big enough for one
home (by our current zoning), with just a token few actual workforce
units.
The
ordinance being put forward by the Planning Board has been carefully crafted;
through a lot of research into what other Towns have done, through consultation
with legal advisors, and ALWAYS keeping in mind the spirit and intent of our
existing zoning ordinances. This
ordinance provides serious developers with opportunities to build quality
housing but does NOT allow rampant overbuilding which would negatively impact
our housing values.
Interestingly
enough, the type of housing actually required by statute and specified in the
proposed ordinance, is NOT low cost, “affordable” housing for those on welfare,
or unemployed, or working for wages below the poverty line. Instead, it is housing for families who can
qualify for a mortgage to buy a house for $260,000, but whose income is not
above the median. In other words, it is
housing for our children when they are starting out, our teachers and other
public employees, business owners/entrepreneurs who (hopefully!) will start
businesses in Town.
The Planning
Board NEEDS this ordinance to have a say in WHAT is built in Town, WHERE it is
built, to LISTEN to citizens’ testimony, and impose appropriate conditions on
construction. We urge you to vote YES on
Amendment #10 of the proposed Zoning Amendments.
Margaret Crisler
Jonathan
Sycamore