Lakeville select board members question proposed 40B project

LAKEVILLE — Members of the Lakeville Select Board raised questions at their Jan. 6 meeting about the viability of a proposed 40B project off Freetown Street and asked whether the state’s requirement for affordable housing should be lessened for rural communities.

They made those comments during a discussion about a potential Open Space Residential Development zoning bylaw, which developers have said could change the scope of a planned housing development. Developers have put their plans on hold pending a decision on the bylaw, which would allow no more housing than is permitted in a subdivision plan while maintaining half of the total land area as open space.

The previous proposal for the Freetown Street land was developed as a 40B project, a state mandate allowing developers to bypass certain zoning requirements if less than 10 percent of the community’s housing stock is considered affordable and if at least 20 percent of the units being constructed are deemed affordable. 

Developer Muhammad Itani had originally proposed building 200 units at the Freetown Street location, including 44 single-family homes, 46 duplex cottages catering to an older demographic and 11 10-unit condominium buildings. At least 50 of the units will be restricted to people with low to moderate incomes. 

If a new bylaw is approved, developers have proposed changing these numbers to 214 units, including single-family homes and duplexes for people ages 55 and older, but over a larger area, 308 acres. The new plan would expand the access points to the project from two to three, with an additional entrance added on County Street. 

The select board did not make a recommendation on the bylaw but spoke passionately about their concerns that the state’s requirement that 10 percent of every community’s housing stock be considered affordable. Communities that do not meet that level are subject to 40B projects.

“We’re a rural community, we’re not designed to get to that’’ threshold, select board member Maureen Candito said. She noted the regulation may be workable in denser communities but not in towns such as Lakeville, where homes are spread out due to its rural nature. 

Select board member Evagelia Fabian said she understands the state has a housing shortage but said that renovated buildings, including old schools or factories, make more sense as potential locations for 40B developments than developing on open spaces.

The clearing required for the proposed Freetown Street project also contradicts the state’s emphasis on green communities, she added. “They’re making us tear our trees down, which is the least green thing we can do,’’ she said.

She also cited concerns raised by members of the Wampanoag tribe about the historical value of the land. 

Select Board member Brynna Donahue said the project should not be supported, with or without the bylaw.

“We as a town have to stop pretending that any variation of this project is acceptable,’’ she said. “The town needs to fight it and not just roll over’’

She said that environmental regulations still must be followed. Among other concerns she raised, she stated that the developer’s testing of the vernal pools was done during the dry season, rather than during a wetter period when rainwater falls and naturally forms the pools.

She also noted that Lakeville values its history and said the rock shelves on the site that would be blasted away by the project were created by glaciers, which date back tens of thousands of years. 

The Planning Board is scheduled to further discuss a potential bylaw at its Jan. 9 meeting. A new bylaw would need to be approved by two-thirds of Spring Town Meeting members.