Excerpt from Towns Discover they can say "no" to developers          3/25/01
As towns approach their threshold for affordable housing, it's set off a scramble among local developers.

By Shawn Boburg
Eagle-Tribune Writer
   According to current housing data, Andover has nine percent affordable housing and would only need 29 more affordable housing units to meet the 10 percent quota.
   Andover's Director of Planning Steve Colyer said that three 40B permits are presently filed with the town, two more will be filed in April, and there is a rumor of another in the making.
   If one of the proposals, a 152-unit apartment complex proposed by Avalon Bay Communities Inc., were to get a permit, the other developments would not be able to bypass town zoning laws.
   With a possible six applications under consideration, Mr. Colyer said, the town may be able to choose the development it prefers and shut the 40B permit doors behind it.
   "This could be an interesting game. If there are several applications being considered at the same time, the (town) Board of Appeals could do its best to get one of them and reach the ten percent limit," Mr. Colyer said. "None of these developments would get accepted under normal local regulations. They are just totally out of the pale in terms of zoning."
   Willard D. Perkins, applying for a permit to build 72 homes, agreed that the town "will be in a position to choose which development it wants." But he said that he is not worried because his project, "is being received very well, and he has a good 'B-plan' for the land."
   Mr. Perkins said that he "can imagine that anybody else proposing a large project in the town (under 40B) might be concerned, though."
   Mr. Colyer said that Andover has attempted to control affordable housing construction in the town, but he said the "soaring property values in Andover make it nearly impossible to build an affordable single-family home. We have asked developers to put in some affordable components in some developments."
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