Boston-based Taurus Investment Holdings is one of two firms backing a pair of 40B developments in West Concord. Photo: Dakota Antelman/The Concord Bridge
Boston-based Taurus Investment Holdings is one of two firms backing a pair of 40B developments in West Concord. Photo: Dakota Antelman/The Concord Bridge

Affordable housing threshold in focus as projects move ahead

By Dakota Antelman — [email protected]

Two West Concord housing developments could add more than 100 affordable units to Concord’s housing stock in the coming years. 

The boost would insulate the town against future projects that use a provision of a state affordable housing law to sidestep zoning regulations. 

The units won’t erase Concord’s affordability concerns, though, housing leaders said. And milestones loom if the town wants to ensure the door to so-called 40B projects stays closed.

“We’re trying to be proactive here,” said Municipal Affordable Housing Trust chair Keith Bergman.

Subsidized housing inventory

Though many state and local leaders agree Massachusetts needs additional affordable housing, the Chapter 40B law is controversial as it lets developers build projects that might not otherwise pass muster.

Municipal Affordable Housing Trust chair Keith Bergman speaks during a January 14 housing roundtable meeting with multiple town committees. Photo: Dakota Antelman/The Concord Bridge
Municipal Affordable Housing Trust chair Keith Bergman speaks during a January 14 housing roundtable with multiple town committees. Photo: Dakota Antelman/The Concord Bridge

Developers get flexibility in municipalities with a subsidized housing inventory (SHI) below 10%. The state calculates SHI by dividing a community’s subsidized units by the number of year-round units. 

Community Housing Development Committee chair Julie McClure said she isn’t “anti-40B.”

During a January 14 housing roundtable meeting with other housing leaders, though, she said staying above the SHI threshold lets the town “set our own pace of development.”

Concord’s SHI was above 10% before 2023. When new census data took effect that summer, the rate dipped to 9.97%. 

Boston-based Taurus Investment Holdings filed an application for a 201-unit project on Baker Avenue in August of 2023.

Months later, The Pinebrook Group pitched plans for another large project, The Residences at Thoreau, on Forest Ridge Road. 

Novo in focus

The Zoning Board of Appeals approved Taurus’ project, Novo Riverside Commons, in a decision filed last April 16. The approval, combined with other developments, pushed Concord’s SHI to 12.81%. 

Planned Novo units will fall off the town’s inventory if Taurus doesn’t pull a building permit within one year of the project’s approval. If the Novo units disappear, they won’t go back onto the inventory until developers secure a permit. 

ZBA chair Theo Kindermans updated fellow committee chairs at a January 15 meeting. Though the Novo project is proceeding, he said he doesn’t expect it will move fast enough to meet the April 16 deadline to stay on the SHI. 

Bergman said the temporary loss of Novo units would drop Concord’s SHI to 10%. The rate could dip further and reopen the town to 40B if any other properties come off the books.

As officials hope to maintain control over zoning, they have their eyes on the Thoreau project, which could expand the buffer. Since Pinebrook filed its plans while the town was below the 10% mark in 2023, the proposal still has zoning flexibility. 

Concord Housing Authority chair Stephan Bader said The Residences at Thoreau is in “a bad location,” raising concerns about the development’s environmental and traffic impacts, among other issues.

But with 40B helping clear the way, Kindermans said Thoreau is on track for approval before April 16.

The Zoning Board of Appeals met with members of the development team behind the proposed Residences at Thoreau 40B housing project on Forest Ridge Road on December 5. Photo: Dakota Antelman/The Concord Bridge
The Zoning Board of Appeals met with members of the development team behind the proposed Residences at Thoreau 40B housing project on Forest Ridge Road on December 5. Photo: Dakota Antelman/The Concord Bridge

Elsewhere, leaders are advancing a project at Assabet River Bluff off Old Marlboro Road that promises two units toward Concord’s SHI.

After Kindermans’ announcement on the Novo timeline, Bergman and Bader said they’re working with town staff to also get the Assabet River Bluff units added to the SHI before April 16.

More work ahead

Taken together, Novo and Thoreau would include well over 400 units. Though all the apartments would count toward the SHI, only 25% would be deed-restricted as affordable. Even if Concord gets comfortably above the 40B threshold, affordability challenges would endure.

At this month’s housing roundtable, Bergman and others highlighted ongoing efforts, including smaller development projects and a Concord Housing Development Corporation buydown program where the corporation buys market rate units and converts them to affordable units. There are also available properties such as MCI-Concord, where many state and local leaders hope to build lower-cost options.

If Concord adds affordable housing at Novo and Thoreau, Bergman told The Bridge, “I think we’ll still be worrying.”

Behind a podium for the housing roundtable, he shared a similar message.

“There’s more work to do in a community where many who work here still cannot afford to live here,” he said.

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