It's a no: Lancaster's Proposed 40R district would not qualify as the town's required "MBTA Communities" district

 

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

The state Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) has reviewed the 40R district proposed by Lancaster's Affordable Housing Trust: it would not qualify as an MBTA Communities district, due to the districts requirement that multifamily housing be part of a mixed-use district.   

If the town approves the 40R district, allowing high-density housing by-right at the Capital Group site, the town would still need to establish a separate high-density housing district elsewhere in town before the end of 2025.

The "Multi-Family Zoning Requirement for MBTA Communities" adopted by the state in January, 2020 will require Lancaster (and 174 other communities) to establish a district that allows dense multi-family housing by right by the end of 2025.   For much of this year the Affordable Housing Trust has promoted that its proposed 40R district at the Capital Group's site in North Lancaster would qualify as Lancaster's district.

The "Final Guidelines" for the MBTA Communities district were released on August 10th.  (LINK)   (Draft guidelines were released last December.)   

The "Final Guidelines" introduced a couple of significant changes:

1.  The minimum district size requirement was removed  (Previously it was 50 acres for Lancaster) and Lancaster's district now only needs to accommodate 139 units at 15 units/acre.  (Previously it was 750 units)  I wrote a separate blog post on this: LINK

2.  The guidelines allow a 40R district to be the town's MBTA Communities district, but only if the 40R district does not require that multifamily housing be part of a multi-use district.   They forbid "...a requirement that multi-family use must be combined with commercial or other uses on the same lot or as part of a single project."

From the final guidelines, under section 4

                                    

The Affordable Housing confirmed at their September 8th meeting that DHCD reviewed their proposed 40R district, and it would not qualify as an MBTA Communities district because of it's requirement that multifamily housing be part of a mixed-use project.

You can watch the Affordable Housing Trust's discussion on "TownHallStreams.com" -- LINK.  Skip ahead to 27:20 to see the discussion.