Hadley City Zoning Code

To expand housing opportunities.

To allow our sons and daughters to remain in Hadley.

To fulfill our social contract to those in need.

To provide economic diversity in our community.

To ensure housing that is necessary to retain and attract industrial, service, and commercial jobs.

To gain and retain full local control of new affordable housing projects.

To mitigate the financial costs and loss of local control that incur if the community must pay for new affordable housing to prevent its ratio of affordable housing from dropping.

To prevent market-rate and high-end-only housing projects that effectively increase the cost of housing in Hadley and make the community more economically homogenous.

Is in a form acceptable to:

Includes provisions for adequate legal monitoring, including:

Includes a grant of the right of first refusal, at an affordable housing price, to the monitoring agency and the fallback agency, if an income-eligible family cannot be found by the seller.

Includes provisions that the restriction can survive any bankruptcy, insolvency, or foreclosure, other than property tax or government super-lien foreclosure, and shall not otherwise be subject to nullification for any reason.

Any project that results in a net increase of seven or more dwelling units, whether by new construction or by the alteration, expansion, reconstruction, or change of existing residential or nonresidential space;

Any subdivision of land for development of seven or more dwelling units; and

Any elderly persons and/or handicapped persons housing development that includes seven or more dwelling units and accompanying services and any projects developed under Section XXVII, Senior Housing Overlay District.

Constructed or rehabilitated on the locus subject to subdivision or special permit approval (see § 25.5); or

Constructed or rehabilitated on a locus different than the one subject to subdivision or special permit approval (see § 25.6). This section shall not apply to projects developed under Section XXVII. Senior Housing Overlay District.

Siting of affordable units. All affordable units constructed or rehabilitated under this bylaw shall be situated within the development so as not to be in less desirable locations than market-rate units in the development and shall, on average, be no less accessible to public amenities, such as open space, as the market-rate units.

Minimum design and construction standards for affordable units. Affordable housing units shall be integrated with the rest of the development and shall be compatible in design, appearance, construction, and quality of materials with other units. Interior features and mechanical systems of affordable units shall conform to the same specifications as apply to market-rate units.

Timing of construction or provision of affordable units or lots. Where feasible, affordable housing units shall be provided coincident to the development of market-rate units, but in no event shall the development of affordable units be delayed beyond the schedule noted below:

Marketing plan for affordable units. Applicants under this bylaw shall submit a marketing plan or other method approved by the Town through its local Comprehensive Plan or Community Development Plan to the Planning Board for its approval which describes how the affordable units will be marketed to potential home buyers or tenants. This plan shall include a description of the lottery or other process to be used for selecting buyers or tenants. The plan shall be in conformance with DHCD rules and regulations and shall be subject to review and approval by DHCD. The property owner shall be responsible for retaining the services of a qualified entity (in compliance with the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development's most recent Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing and Resident Selection Plan Guidelines), subject to the Planning Board's approval, to seek buyers and/or renters for the affordable units and shall submit an annual report to the Planning Board detailing compliance with the affordable housing provisions of the housing development approval. Said approved qualified entity shall be responsible for monitoring the long-term affordability of the units and shall report any deviations from these provisions to the Building Inspector and the Planning Board.

Calculation of fee-in-lieu-of units. The applicant for development subject to this bylaw may pay fees-in-lieu of the construction of affordable units. For the purposes of this bylaw the fee-in-lieu of the construction or provision of affordable units will be determined as a per-unit cost as calculated from regional construction and sales reports, and pro-rata site purchase and development. The Planning Board shall make the final determination of acceptable value, in accordance with regulations it may from time to time adopt and amend.

Schedule of fees-in-lieu-of-units payments. Fees-in-lieu-of-units payments shall be made according to the schedule set forth in § 25.5.3.

Creation of Affordable Units. Cash contributions and donations of land and/or buildings made to the Hadley Affordable Housing Trust Fund in accordance with § 25.7 shall be used according to the rules and regulations of said Trust.

Resale price. Sales beyond the initial sale to a qualified affordable income purchaser shall include the initial discount rate between the sale price and the unit's appraised value at the time of resale. This percentage shall be recorded as part of the restriction on the property noted above.

Right of first refusal to purchase. The purchaser of an affordable housing unit developed as a result of this bylaw shall agree to execute a deed rider prepared by the Town, consistent with model riders prepared by the Department of Housing and Community Development, granting, among other things, the municipality's right of first refusal to purchase the property in the event that a subsequent qualified purchaser cannot be located.

The Planning Board shall require, as a condition for approval under this bylaw, that the applicant comply with the mandatory set-asides and accompanying restrictions on affordability, including the execution of the deed rider noted above. The Building Inspector shall not issue a certificate of occupancy for any affordable unit until the deed restriction is recorded.

If the affordable senior units are part of a condominium, the condominium documents shall, at a minimum, ensure that the owners of the affordable senior units will not be required to pay for capital improvements they cannot afford and that they will have fair and sufficient voting rights.