New Bedford calls on suburbs to pitch in on affordable housing

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In April, dozens of leaders from New Bedford and its suburbs gathered at the Whaling Museum for a summit on the region’s worsening housing crisis.

They shook hands, sat on panels, and chatted around circular tables while lunching on sandwiches and wraps. A key goal of the gathering was to establish a regional task force to address the housing shortage. Leaders said collaboration was critical.

Housing in Distress / First in a series

But seven months later, the task force has still not been formed. That means there’s no region-wide housing strategy. Instead, there is a patchwork of plans and ideas that vary widely in scope and scale from town to town.

New Bedford officials have been calling on the suburbs to build more homes since the launch of the city’s housing plan last year. Speaking at the summit, the state’s housing secretary, Ed Augustus, praised New Bedford’s efforts and said every community should have a similar plan.

But so far, none of the suburbs have created housing strategies as detailed or as comprehensive as New Bedford’s. The city’s top housing official says the suburbs could do more to address the housing crisis.

“New Bedford is certainly willing to do its part and is doing everything we can,” said Josh Amaral, director of the city’s Office of Housing and Community Development. “But it’s going to take more than just us.”

The suburbs are measurably behind New Bedford in offering affordable housing. None have reached a state benchmark of having 10% of their housing stock restricted for people with low incomes, although some town administrators say they are close to crossing the threshold. Meanwhile, nearly 12% of housing units in New Bedford are income-restricted, with dozens more restricted units in the pipeline.

By 2030, Greater New Bedford must build 8,700 new housing units to keep up with increasing demand, including 3,200 units in the suburbs — that was one of the key findings in the New Bedford Economic Development Council’s Housing for All report issued earlier this year. The report was the impetus for the summit in April.

This month, Tony Sapienza, president of the Economic Development Council, declined to discuss the summit’s outcome in detail, but said “interesting initiatives” have been happening since the summit.

Residents of the towns are feeling the squeeze as the housing shortage drives up costs.

“People are finding it harder to stay in the community that their family has been in for generations,” said Rochester Town Administrator Cameron Durant.

Seniors, burdened by rising property taxes, can’t downsize in their own communities. Growing families can’t afford to pay skyrocketing home prices. College graduates can’t move out of their parents’ homes.

Suburban town leaders say they’re implementing new zoning districts, commissioning housing studies, and considering bylaw changes. On Tuesday night, Fairhaven’s Town Meeting will vote on a new zoning district for denser housing. 

But suburban leaders also say challenges get in the way of construction — some towns have little developable land left, and large developments will require costly wastewater improvements.

Town leaders in Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Mattapoisett, Marion, and Rochester laid out their housing in interviews with The Light. The town administrators in Freetown and Acushnet, which have the lowest number of income-restricted units in the region, did not respond to The Light’s multiple phone calls and emails requesting interviews.

Fairhaven voting on new zoning districts

Fairhaven will hold a special Town Meeting on Tuesday to vote on whether to introduce 40R “smart growth” districts, a type of zoning that encourages denser, mixed-use development with income-restricted housing.

The proposed districts would cover the industrial waterfront area just south of the New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge and some commercial plazas off Route 6.

“We really want to support development, but smart development,” said Fairhaven Select Board Chair Stasia Powers.

In the proposed districts, developers could add multifamily housing in particular areas and according to specific design standards that town leaders have deemed fit. The proposed design parameters are 65 pages long.

The districts are not specific project proposals — they just make it legal within the city’s zoning to build new housing in these areas. Town leaders have described the transformation as a 20-year process. But they say some developers have already expressed interest.

The town has spent the last two years developing the districts with input from the community and consultants. The waterfront and plaza areas were chosen because they could be put to better use, said Bruce Webb, the town’s land use director.

“The expansive parking that is part of the existing big-box plazas in town was definitely underutilized,” he said. “They just don’t need all that parking.”

Town planners reduced maximum building heights in the plaza district from 75 feet to 55 feet in response to resident input, Webb said.

Residents have also expressed concern about the affordable housing component of the district. Webb said some residents are picturing the “unsightly” low-income housing projects of the 1980s and ’90s.

New developments in the 40R districts would have to set aside 15% to 25% of the units (depending on the type of housing) for households making less than 80% of the area median income. For a household of three, the maximum income would be $78,850.

“That’s not that low-income in the grand scheme of things,” Webb said. “This isn’t ‘projects.’”

Fairhaven is also working to streamline its permitting process by increasing coordination between departments, Powers said.

Will Gardner sees it differently.

The Fairhaven Town Meeting member and former executive director of Alma Del Mar Charter School said he supports the 40R districts, but wants the town’s conversation on housing to continue after this month’s Town Meeting.

“When the conversation focuses very narrowly on an up-or-down, yes-or-no issue, we can miss out on the opportunity to have a wider, more nuanced conversation about what we want to see,” he said.

Gardner writes about his views on development, housing and transportation in his Substack column, “StrongHaven.”

He said he wants to see the town encourage more “incremental development,” or small projects filling in underutilized space throughout town, instead of focusing on larger, all-or-nothing developments that can be shut down with the vote of a permitting board.

The state’s recent move to legalize “in-law” apartments can be part of the “incremental” approach, he said. He added that the town should also think about other zoning laws.

Gardner said the town could allow houses to be built on smaller lots, and let duplexes and three-family homes be built in single-family neighborhoods — replicating older housing that has been grandfathered into Fairhaven’s modern zoning. New Bedford is already working to implement similar zoning changes.

“Why is it that some of our best housing is now illegal to build throughout town?” Gardner asked.

The town should also reconsider the amount of parking it requires for new development, he said. Those high parking requirements created the empty parking lots that the town now wants to redevelop with the 40R districts. 

Rochester’s new zoning and new housing

Rochester has already approved a 40R in the town’s northeast corner. A 200-plus-unit housing development has been approved for the site, though construction hasn’t started on it.

“The way to fix housing is definitely partnerships between municipalities and private businesspeople,” said Durant, the town administrator.

Durant said the 40R project’s affordable units will bring the town into compliance with 40B, another state housing statute. The 40B law essentially mandates affordable housing production by allowing developers to override local zoning laws in communities that don’t have at least 10% of their units set aside as income-restricted.

None of New Bedford’s suburbs have officially reached the 40B threshold, though some have permitted developments that will bring them into compliance when built.

Dartmouth and Marion tout developments in pipeline

In Dartmouth, an upcoming mixed-income development on Route 6 called “The Preserve” will add 288 new apartments and bring the town close to the 10% 40B threshold, said Assistant Town Administrator Chris Vitale. He added that more developments in the pipeline may push the town over the 10% threshold soon, though he didn’t know by exactly how much.

Vitale said the town is working to add development in areas where it “makes sense,” such as around Route 6, an area currently dominated by shopping plazas.

Dartmouth is working with SRPEDD, the regional planning authority, to design a housing strategy aimed at reaching the 40B threshold, Vitale said. The SRPEDD consultants are surveying residents, analyzing market trends, and making projections this fall, winter and spring.

The town is also expanding its home rehabilitation and fuel assistance programs to help current residents afford to stay in their homes, Vitale said.

Marion Town Administrator Geoff Gorman expects that an upcoming development will soon send his town over the 40B threshold. Heron Cove, a 120-unit, mixed-income development, has its permits and is ready to break ground, Gorman said. Another market-rate development is in the works on Route 6. The town is in early talks about redeveloping the site of the former Lockheed Martin factory.

“That doesn’t mean we still don’t have a housing issue, though,” he said.

Marion has become exclusively expensive — some estimates peg the median home price at nearly $1 million. The town needs more affordable starter homes for families and condos for empty nesters, Gorman said, though Marion doesn’t yet have specific programs to address those needs.

The town administrator said he wants to see more groundbreakings, but he knows that it’s a challenging time for housing development. High material costs and interest rates are slowing down projects that would have made more financial sense just a few years ago.

Mattapoisett attracts luxury home builders, administrator says

Mattapoisett has partnered with Habitat for Humanity to build some homes, but the town hasn’t been able to attract multifamily developers, said Town Administrator Mike Lorenco. At the same time, the town is struggling to attract and keep families because of rising home prices.

Lorenco said developers are more interested in building luxury homes than affordable apartments, because houses sell quickly for higher-than-asking price and don’t involve as much costly paperwork. Only 2.7% of the town’s housing stock is currently income-restricted, far below the 10% 40B threshold.

Mattapoisett’s most recent master plan sets a goal to adjust zoning to allow for more small multi-family housing. None of the planned changes have been passed.

All of the town leaders said they were considering how to implement new zoning bylaws for accessory dwelling units, also known as “in-law” apartments. That’s partly because the state legalized them by right earlier this year. But the bylaw updates only define what exactly the towns allow — they don’t guarantee that any units will be built.

Land restrictions and sewers stand in the way of construction

Sewers are a key sticking point in the suburbs. Many developable areas in the towns have no sewer connection, which means either the developer or the town may have to pay the multimillion-dollar bill to handle a project’s wastewater.

“No one really thinks about sewer until they flush and it doesn’t go down,” said Vitale, the Dartmouth assistant administrator.

Dartmouth’s housing plan, currently being developed, will look at sewer and other infrastructure improvements for future development sites, Vitale said. It’s expensive, he said, and that’s why it’s important to look far ahead and spread borrowing costs over many years.

Dartmouth has had to let some projects go because there wasn’t enough funding to support the necessary wastewater improvements, Vitale said. The town’s new development, The Preserve, was made possible by a $2.6 million state grant that helped the town add a pump station.

Marion wasn’t so lucky. That town didn’t get any of the $3 million it asked the state for to fund its planned Route 6 water main expansion, Gorman said.

Much of the land in the suburbs can’t be developed into housing because it falls into protected categories, such as recreation, conservation, or wetlands, town leaders said. 

“You can go find the largest acreage, and you can’t build on it for one reason or another,” Durant said. 

Transportation options will also affect future development. Vitale, who sits on the SRTA advisory board, said bus routes influence how much parking towns require developers to build with each project.

In Marion, flooding is another concern. Rising seas threaten large swaths of the town’s coastline. Gorman fears that floods will cause affluent coastal homeowners to retreat inland, displacing residents there and further tightening the housing market.

Some residents of the towns worry that more development will put pressure on services. Actually, said Gorman, more density helps bolster the town’s tax rolls. Gorman likes to show residents a diagram that demonstrates the tradeoffs of refusing more development.

Making housing more affordable is important for a town with an aging population, he said. To avoid becoming a “rich people conclave,” he said, “we have to open up doors to people that can’t afford an $800,000 home.”

New Bedford’s role

Amaral, New Bedford’s housing and community development director, said the suburbs can do more to build housing. They could attract a “robust” multifamily housing market, he said, but the communities have a reputation for being unfriendly to developers.

Amaral said New Bedford wants to collaborate and lend its expertise in housing. He said the city can help other towns build relationships with developers and apply for grant funding, help developers find the right sites, and offer its experience in financing projects and planning for infrastructure. 

He pointed to the city’s Building New Bedford plan as a blueprint other towns could follow. He highlighted specific strategies, like targeting vacant and underutilized properties, or using state grants to build infrastructure that supports new development. None of this would significantly change the suburban and rural “character” of the towns, he said.

State grant programs usually try to spread the money between different communities, so New Bedford might only get one or two grants from any one program each year, Amaral said. But that doesn’t stop towns such as Dartmouth or Fairhaven from applying for their own grants, which could bring even more state money and housing units to the region.

“We leave some money on the table as a region, I think, by not being more coordinated in that sense,” he said.

Ultimately, Amaral said he knows towns won’t build housing just because New Bedford says so. But he said there’s growing recognition in local and state government, and in the private sector, that the housing crisis needs action.

“There are real housing needs in the towns; there are real housing needs in the cities,” he said. “And rather than bickering about it, we should just figure out how to build together.”

Email Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org

Editor’s note: Tony Sapienza is a member of The New Bedford Light’s Board of Directors. The New Bedford Light’s newsroom is scrupulously independent. Only the editors decide what to cover and what to publish. Founders, funders and board members have no influence over editorial content.

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