The Melrose Housing Production Plan is a process to set the course for the future of housing in Melrose.

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Final Plan

Read the final Housing Production Plan (updated February 2022).
Learn about housing need, factors affecting development, and recommendations for increasing housing production and affordability in Melrose over the next five years.

We thank you for sharing your input during the public comment period and for your participation during this entire planning process. Upon local adoption by the Melrose City Council and Planning Board, the HPP will be sent to DHCD for review and approval.

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About the Plan

The City of Melrose is launching a community-driven planning process to create a vision for the future of the city’s housing and to address housing needs. The Housing Production Plan (HPP) will assess housing need and demand, analyze constraints and opportunities for housing development, set goals to address housing needs, and recommend practical strategies to achieve those goals. Along the way, this planning process will convene a public conversation about housing and the role it plays in the Melrose community. The HPP will address housing holistically with a focus on affordability and equity. Melrose has partnered with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) to conduct the process and produce the plan.

The ultimate product of this process is a plan that meets the requirements of a Housing Production Plan, as defined by Massachusetts General Laws under Chapter 40B. The finished plan will be submitted to the City Council and the Planning Board for adoption. If they adopt the plan, the HPP will be submitted for approval by the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development. The planning process is funded by MAPC’s District Local Technical Assistance Program and by a state Community Compact Grant awarded to the City of Melrose.

The City of Melrose Office of Planning and Community Development is leading the HPP, with Planning Director Denise Gaffey and Senior Planner Lori Massa managing the process at the City. Emma Schnur Battaglia, Senior Housing and Land Use Planner, is managing the process at MAPC. Please direct any questions to lmassa@cityofmelrose.org or ebattaglia@mapc.org.

Timeline

Fall 2020
Housing Needs Assessment and Goal Setting

Winter - Spring 2021
Development Constraints and Opportunities Analysis

Spring 2021
Strategy Development

Summer - Fall 2021
Plan Production

Winter 2022
Plan Release and Adoption

Public Engagement

The Melrose HPP will be responsive to the real housing needs of the Melrose community, and therefore public engagement is at the center of the planning process. Due to the uncertainty created by the COVID-19 crisis, this process will be primarily conducted virtually.

Advisory Committee Engagement Campaigns

Advisory Committee

The City of Melrose has convened an Advisory Committee of residents and stakeholders to weigh in on the process and help the City produce a plan that reflects the community and can be implemented. Advisory Committee members are responsible for sharing local knowledge of community attitudes towards housing, housing need and demand, challenges and barriers to meeting demand, and development opportunity areas; identifying stakeholders; and reviewing and providing input on plan elements. The Advisory Committee will meet approximately 5 times over the course of the planning process.

The Advisory Committee includes the following members:

City Councillor Jack Eccles
Gregory Sampson, Melrose Planning Board
Ellen Connolly
Thais DeMarco
Jaron Green
Charlie Harak
Deepak Karamcheti
Seamus Kelley
Dana LeWinter
Gina Martinez

Engagement Campaigns

The planning process will include two public engagement campaigns, which will be primarily conducted online. The first campaign in Fall 2020 will address housing needs and goals. The second campaign in Winter 2021 will address housing opportunities and strategies for the City to achieve its housing goals. Each campaign will feature a webinar, an online open house, and shareable materials to help the community weigh in on the plan.

About Affordable Housing

When most people talk about housing affordability, they simply mean housing that works within their budget. The government considers housing affordable when housing costs do not exceed 30% of a household’s income. When households pay more than 30%, they often must make difficult financial decisions, such as skipping meals or doctor’s appointments to have enough money to pay for their homes. This is called being “housing cost-burdened.”

Housing planners use a specific definition of “Affordable Housing” (with a capital “A” and “H”) when discussing housing policy and development. “Affordable Housing” must cost 30% or less of a household’s income and it may only be rented or sold to income-eligible low- or moderate-income residents. Affordable Housing has restrictions on its deed that preserve affordability for decades or in perpetuity, ensuring that income-eligible households can stay in their communities. Without deed restrictions, housing costs can go up as markets rise, making homes that were once inexpensive now costly. Deed-restricted Affordable Housing protects communities from skyrocketing costs and related displacement.

Eligibility to live in deed-restricted Affordable Housing is based on household income and the number of people in the household, which is usually compared to the regional Area Median Income (AMI) calculated by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The 2020 AMI for the Greater Boston region, which includes Melrose, is $119,000. Under many Affordable Housing programs, households eligible for deed-restricted Affordable Housing must have incomes at or below 80% of AMI. For a household of one, 80% AMI is $66,650; for a household of four, it is $95,200. Some Affordable Housing programs serve households with lower incomes than those.

Affordable Housing can take many forms, including public housing and private Affordable Housing, which is typically built by nonprofit developers or for-profit developers through mixed-income projects. All Affordable Housing requires subsidy, and usually this subsidy comes from the government. Today’s Affordable Housing developments usually require multiple subsidies from all levels of government, as well as private debt and foundation funding, in order to be built. In addition to government-subsidized Affordable Housing, many cities, including Melrose, require market-rate developments to include Affordable Housing under laws often called “inclusionary zoning.” In this case, the market-rate units in each development help to subsidize the Affordable Housing in that development.

Chapter 40B

Chapter 40B is a state statute that encourages the production of Affordable Housing in communities throughout Massachusetts, particularly in towns where less than 10% of the housing is affordable. In communities below the 10% minimum, Chapter 40B provides eligible developers the ability to supersede local zoning if 20-25% of units in a development are Affordable. Currently, 8% of Melrose’s housing stock is on the state Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI), so the city does not meet the 10% minimum to achieve “Safe Harbor” under Chapter 40B. (There are other methods for a city to reach Safe Harbor, but Melrose has not met those either.)

It is important to note that the need for Affordable Housing usually exceeds Chapter 40B’s minimum threshold. Today in Melrose, 36% of households would be eligible for Affordable Housing based on their income, and 29% of Melrose households are housing cost-burdened.

HPP Requirements

As part of Chapter 40B, the state asks every community to develop a Housing Production Plan, which is a proactive strategy for communities to plan for and guide development of housing. An HPP consists of the following components:

A housing needs and demand assessment that considers the community’s demographics, housing supply, and how well the housing meets the needs of residents.
An analysis of regulatory and non-regulatory constraints on affordable housing development.
A vision and goals for the future of housing, including a numeric annual housing production targets and the identification of specific opportunity sites where the City will encourage residential development.
Strategies for achieving goals and an implementation plan for those strategies.

For cities that do not have Safe Harbor, an HPP can be the first step toward reaching Safe Harbor. To reach Safe Harbor through an HPP, the plan must be adopted by the City, approved by the state, and the City must make progress toward its annual housing production targets by permitting new housing.

For more information on common ideas and terms used in housing planning, visit the MAPC HPP glossary .

Resources

Final Plan: Published February 2022

2022 Melrose Housing Production Plan

Webinar #2: Goals, Strategies, Actions, and Development
June 16, 2021

Webinar #1: Existing Conditions, Vision and Goals
December 2, 2020

Fall 2020 Engagement Summary