LYNN — City Council unanimously voted to approve several amendments to the City’s inclusionary zoning ordinance.
The inclusionary zoning ordinance was originally adopted in 2022, and the City has committed to periodically reviewing the regulations to “make sure that the requirements that are attached to the affordability for new projects is in line with market conditions and supports the creation of new housing while still creating new affordable opportunities for market driven projects,” said Planning Department Principal Planning Director Aaron Clausen.
The Planning Department partnered with RKG Associates to conduct a study that informed the proposed changes.
Lynn has three different zoning districts: downtown, the waterfront, and the rest of the city. According to Clausen, in 2022, “There was a pretty stark difference in terms of revenue and rent that could be garnered on a project between the downtown and waterfront and the rest of the city.”
However, according to Clausen, “(Within) the last three years, rents have been balancing out.”
Because of this, the Planning Department is removing the 20% in-lieu fee for downtown and waterfront rents.
Another main takeaway from the study is that “smaller projects don’t benefit from economies of scale in the market that a larger project might.” Therefore, the Planning Department is introducing a sliding scale discount for projects under 20 units to offset the costs of smaller projects.
“A 100-unit project can benefit from the scale in administration, site acquisition, and the legal and soft cost that go into a project that a smaller project may not be able to bear,” Clausen said. “So (RKG’s) recommendation was to create a range and discount for smaller projects that don’t benefit from those economies of scale.”
The Planning Department and the Inspectional Services Department noticed other issues surrounding implementation of the inclusionary zoning ordinance. Currently, a 10-unit building requires at least one affordable unit. However, this process includes administrative oversight including in-perpetuity legal paperwork, and a tenant selection process with a lottery.
“That’s a fair amount of work and can add costs to an on-site unit. It’s harder to bear at a smaller scale,” Clausen said.
As a result, the Planning Department proposed to “increase the buy-right payment for an in-lieu fee up to 19 units to mitigate those potential costs.”
The department also proposed to ease inclusionary zoning laws for property owners looking to expand their units to house family members.
“Multi-general housing is affordable housing for the most part. So we want to support that and mitigate that impact on property owners who are looking to provide multi-generational housing in their home,” Clausen said.
Ward 6 Councilor Fred Hogan voiced his support for the inclusionary zoning ordinance adjustments.
“Going forward, the new zoning will help smaller projects and our constituents that are being heavily burdened by some of these fees that were in place,” Hogan said.
