pages: PlanningBoard/2008-06-23.pdf, 13
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PlanningBoard | 2008-06-23 | 13 | residential, but was across the street from a residential neighborhood. She understood that the off-site inclusionary housing option was supported by legal precedent. She did not understand why the proposal to move the five of the 10 affordable housing units from the Grand Marina site to Island High School were the low- and very low-income homes, and why it could not be a mix of all three income-level qualified homes. Mr. Day replied that in their discussions with City staff, staff preferred that they kept the moderate homes on-site. He noted that Warmington preferred that they be put off-site, because that would allow them to use other non-profit builders who required moderate-income homes in their mix; the City did not want that, and preferred that the low- and very-low-income moved off-site. Board member Ezzy Ashcraft noted that the report and attachments referenced the possibility that if Warmington were allowed to build more than the proposed nine affordable units at Island High School, where there may be room for as many as 18 units, the proposal would be for credit to be given toward off-site inclusionary housing for projects not yet built by Warmington that they may contemplate. She was concerned with that possibility, and while she supported affordable housing and understood the 25% developer contributions toward affordable housing in redevelopment, Attachment 2 stated that the City wished to retain an "economically balanced community." She did not want to see all the affordable housing bunched together in one area. She had been impressed with the previous Warmington design, which did a good job in integrating the affordable units with the market-rate units. President Cook noted that she noticed an item in the affordable housing agreement which read, "Developer has requested that it be allowed to meet the project inclusionary requirement by developing five ownership units that will be affordable to moderate-income households on the property, and nine ownership for rental units that will be affordable to low- and very-low-income households off-site." She inquired whether they preferred to mix the housing up more. Mr. Day replied that they agreed with the model of Bayport, which has moderate-, for-sale and low- income units dispersed throughout the project. The low- and very-low units were the for-rent units. President Cook would like clarification on which policy would be utilized with respect to inclusionary housing. She noted that there were a lot of good reasons to put affordable housing downtown because of the number of services, grocery stores, and transit, but there were no projects to look at that even the School District has had a chance to consider. Mr. Thomas noted that in terms of the timing, this item contained the finding about Island High School and the merits of the proposed amendments to the Master Plan. Mr. Day noted that there was language that referred to "Island High or other equivalent sites. " He noted that he had already looked for other sites and had not found any. He noted that Island High School was the only feasible choice, and that time was of the essence. Vice President Kohlstrand believed there was some benefit to the City to looking at this site. She noted that because this was on a School District site, it seemed that there may be more potential Page 13 of 23 | PlanningBoard/2008-06-23.pdf |