Council opens hearing on housing development incentive zones for Suffolk Downs, Green Street and Shirley Avenue

City planning staff described a proposal Dec. 16 to seek state approval for three Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP) zones — Suffolk Downs; Green Street; and Shirley Avenue — and for the mayor to be authorized to execute tax-exemption agreements for eligible projects.

Tom Skrooski, speaking for the planning department, explained that HDIP combines a local option to exempt a portion of tax increment on newly created property value with a state tax credit worth up to $2 million or 25% of a project’s value. He said the local tax-exemption component makes a project eligible for the larger state credit and that any individual tax agreement would come back to the council for approval. Skrooski said the Green Street and Shirley Avenue districts would target projects that use the Chapter 40R smart-growth zoning mechanism to spur mixed-income housing and generate state zoning incentive payments and per-unit payments to the city.

Councilors asked whether tax breaks could be conditioned to require affordable units. Skrooski said individual negotiations could examine affordable-unit commitments, but he cautioned that securing large amounts of affordability would likely require aggressive local tax incentives and that each tax agreement would be a council decision. Councilor Zambuto said past negotiating outcomes for Suffolk Downs left most affordable units on the East Boston side and noted legal limits tied to prior approvals. Several councilors said the item should be discussed further in subcommittee before the council takes any specific tax-agreement votes.

The council president confirmed that the HDIP proposal would be sent to the zoning subcommittee for further review.