A committee reviewing Haverhill’s proposed five-year Housing Production Plan heard ideas Monday to provide more affordable homes that include encouraging triple-deckers and taking better advantage of state incentives.
The Haverhill City Council’s Planning and Development Committee also received cautionary tales from both a nonprofit and for-profit developer. At Large Councilor John A. Michitson, who chairs the subcommittee, invited developers to attend the hearing. Two attending where Essex County Habitat For Humanity Executive Director Meegan O’Neil and David Traggorth of Causeway Development which developed two mixed-use properties in downtown Haverhill in 2009. Traggorth praised the city for its work on developing the housing plan.
“I want to just commend you guys for taking the steps tonight for the Housing Production Plan. I don’t have anything in front of the city at the moment. I wish I did. Haverhill’s always been a really great place to do work and to build housing,” Traggorth said.
But, he went on to note that there are macroeconomic forces beyond the control of the city that make building in the city expensive.
“The construction costs are also more than double probably where they were when we were building, if you can believe it. A couple reasons for that—the labor market continues to be tight, building codes are more stringent than they have ever been and another the more recent thing that has happened is just the uncertainty around tariffs and materials pricing,” Traggorth said.
Habitat is currently constructing a duplex on Curtis Street and recently purchased a property on Washington Street for the construction of seven homes. O’Neil said it typically costs Habitat $450,000 to build one unit, which it turns around and sells for $250,000. She said Habitat fundraises to keep the units affordable adding together both public and private contributions. She urged city officials to consider two local option programs—the Affordable Housing Trust and Community Preservation Act—to build a source of local money.
“The first-time homebuyer program, the down payment assistance, things like that, can be a huge help for us because we can layer some funding together so that’s one of things that really helps. Haverhill is one of the few cities or communities that we work in that doesn’t have Affordable Housing Trust Fund and CPA funds. That is making this very, very difficult for us because pretty much every community that I am looking to build in now, we are going to be able to tap those local funds. Without being able to tap those local funds in Haverhill, it is going to be next to impossible. Fortunately, you’ve got Gateway Cities which helps at the state level. But without those local funds it is going to be real hard for us to be able to build here,” O’Neil said.
For his part, Economic Development and Planning Director William Pillsbury Jr. pointed out one recent program that could slowly add affordable units to the city is the relaxed zoning for accessory dwelling units, also called in-law apartments. Recently, the city made is easier for homeowners to add units to their properties. However, some homeowners are finding building code requirements restrictive and expensive, Pillsbury said.
“We have determined that our accessory dwelling unit program is interesting people. The building inspector is getting a lot of visits. People are coming in and want to talk about how do I do an ADU. They want to know how to do it. But they are running into some issues. For many they didn’t expect this. They may have a detached unit. They have to sprinkle it because of the fire code or some of the other requirements that come along with that. And so, we have a working group of city departments that is meeting to work on continually streamline the process for ADUs. Some of that means we are going to reach out through the mayor’s good offices to the lieutenant governor to talk about some changes that should be made at the state level to make things easier,” Pillsbury said.
Pillsbury also suggested that allowing residents who own two-story houses in residential neighborhoods with triple-deckers ought to be allowed to add a third level without having to apply for a special permit. The idea won the backing of Nate Robertson, a member of the Haverhill Planning Board and also spokesperson for the advocacy group, Haverhill Homes 4 All.
Pillsbury also said at the request of Mayor Barrett, his office is preparing a list of surplus city-owned property which could be developed specifically for affordable housing. And he said under discussion is expanding the elder discount on property taxes from 40% to 100%.
The Housing Production Plan must be ratified by both the Haverhill Planning Board and the full Haverhill City Council before it is submitted to the state.