Zoning Affordable housing Safe harbor.

Byline: Mass. Lawyers Weekly Staff

Where the Department of Housing and Community Development found that the city of Medford has not met the general land area minimum safe harbor, the Medford zoning board failed to meet its burden of proof that the city has met the statutory general land area minimum of 1.5 percent.

Appeal dismissed.

"This is an interlocutory appeal to the Housing Appeals Committee brought by the Medford Zoning Board of Appeals (Board), pursuant to 760 CMR 56.03(8). The Board has appealed a determination by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) that the City of Medford (Medford) has not met the general land area minimum, one of three statutory safe harbors that establishes that requirements and regulations imposed by a zoning board's decision, after hearing, are consistent with local needs under the Comprehensive Permit Law, G.L.c. 40B, 20. ... The general land area minimum safe harbor is met if low or moderate income housing exists on sites comprising 1.5 percent or more of all land zoned for residential, commercial, or industrial use in a municipality. G.L.c. 40B, 20; 760 CMR 56.03(3)(b).

"The Board contends, based on its calculations, that Medford has satisfied the 1.5 percent general land area minimum threshold, with a general land area percent of 1.83.

"The Board asserts that it has established that [Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI)] eligible acreage represents 1.83 percent of total land area. ... Since the Board failed to provide credible...