Select Board signs release of age restriction on Linden Chambers, approves tax-exemption agreement and grant terms for redevelopment

The Select Board voted on Feb. 25 to sign three legal instruments needed for the Linden Chambers redevelopment, carrying out Town Meeting’s May 2024 decision to release a deed restriction that had limited the property to housing for the elderly.

Town Counsel K. Fitzpatrick explained the documents to the board: a recorded release of the age-restriction recites Town Meeting’s Article 41 vote to remove the limitation; a separate written agreement establishes that the property and specified affiliated entities (including the Needham Housing Authority’s development corporation and prospective ground lessees) will not be subject to local property or personal taxes so long as the site is used exclusively for affordable housing and owned by the authority; and a grant agreement governing town payments requires a recorded affordable-housing restriction and payment on a reimbursement basis after the housing authority submits paid invoices for eligible costs.

The tax-exemption agreement specifically ties the tax exemption to the property’s continued use as affordable housing and includes exhibits that break down the proposed unit mix and affordability tiers (units at or below 30 percent AMI, 50 percent AMI, and 60 percent AMI) for phase 1a and phase 1b of the project. Town counsel and the housing authority said the exhibits emerged from the housing authority’s financing plan.

Board members and housing authority representatives discussed a separate memorandum of agreement the town and the housing authority negotiated before Town Meeting that commits parties to “prioritize elderly tenants to the greatest extent practicable.” The parties agreed not to put the MOA language into the recorded release, because the housing authority and its financing partners preferred that commitments be captured in a binding contract signed by all operating parties rather than embedded in the recorded deed instrument. The housing authority and its related entities will sign the MOA so the prioritization pledge covers all parties involved in redevelopment, officials said.

The grant agreement requires the housing authority to provide a project budget and to record an affordable-housing restriction before the town disburses any funds. The agreement also contains a deadline provision: the first phase’s closing must occur by Sept. 2027, unless the CPC (or other applicable town authority) agrees to an extension for good cause, the documents state. Town counsel said town payments would be made only on a reimbursement basis after required financing closings and eligible costs are incurred and invoiced.

Select Board members voted to approve and sign the release of restriction, the tax agreement and the related grant terms. The motion passed unanimously on the record in open session.