Planning board amends Fox Howe occupancy conditions: two workforce units reclassified as affordable and up to $18,000 accepted for bus shelter

The Planning Board on March 20 amended conditions related to occupancy for the Fox Howe development (770 and 770R Water Street), resolving outstanding mitigation and affordable‑housing items from the project’s earlier approvals.

Planning staff reported that construction and infrastructure work at Fox Howe are complete and most development conditions have been satisfied, but two issues remained: (1) an outstanding mitigation payment (planning staff calculated a net remaining obligation of roughly $82,000 after credits for on‑site work) and (2) affordable‑housing regulatory paperwork to secure units on the state’s Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI).

Under the prior approval the project included 58 units with 15 designated as affordable in perpetuity; a subset of those units (referred to in the meeting as “workforce” units) may be rented at income levels that can range up to 120 percent of area median income and therefore do not count toward the SHI. Planning staff said eight of the project’s units fell into that workforce category and thus would not qualify for SHI listing under state rules. The developer, Peter Spellos, offered an alternative: convert two of the workforce units into SHI‑eligible affordable units at 80 percent AMI in perpetuity rather than making an $82,000 payment for mitigation. Staff recommended accepting the two SHI‑eligible units to secure permanency on the town’s inventory and to allow the developer to proceed with marketing and leasing of the other units while the state processes Local Action Unit paperwork.

Board members also discussed a condition requiring a bus shelter along Water Street that was tied to a MassWorks grant and recent street reconstruction; the developer agreed to provide funds to allow the city to install or rehabilitate a bus shelter on the corridor. Planning staff noted the original cost estimate for a shelter was about $13,000 but that costs have likely increased; the board voted to accept a payment of up to $18,000 to cover a bus shelter or related improvements, with final siting and any historic‑structure or easement work to be handled by staff and other city departments.

The board voted to: (a) reduce the project’s workforce unit count by two and designate those two units as permanently affordable (SHI‑eligible), and (b) accept developer funds of up to $18,000 for a bus shelter or related transit improvements. The motion recorded these changes and authorized staff to finalize the associated regulatory paperwork and payment arrangements. The item passed on voice vote; no roll‑call tally was recorded in the transcript.