Lowell housing plan sets numeric goals, officials refer plan to full council for review

Lowell — City planning staff and a regional planner on Tuesday presented the Homes and Housing Plan — a housing production roadmap developed with the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments — and the Housing Subcommittee voted to forward the plan to the full City Council for review and discussion.

For the record, Fran Segliano, senior planner with the Department of Planning and Development, introduced the presentation before Chris Hayes, housing and economic development program manager at the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments (NIMCOG), gave an overview of the plan and its recommendations.

The plan frames goals and measurable indicators, including a top-line goal of 3,150 new housing units (the presentation tied that total to projected household formation and a healthy vacancy rate), with roughly 800 of those units described in the presentation as income-restricted affordable units. Other targets discussed included lowering the number of households lacking full kitchen or plumbing facilities (the presentation cited 599 or fewer households in that condition, based on the American Community Survey), reducing total cost-burden to 36.6 percent or less and severe…