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Council accepts foundation help to identify monitoring agent for attainable-housing ordinance
Summary
Following solicitor and planning-board guidance that attainable-housing language belongs in the subdivision chapter, the Commons Foundation offered to identify and pay for a monitoring agent; council voted to delegate the identification task to the foundation after public concern about qualifications and foreclosure handling.
The town solicitor recommended moving the proposed attainable-housing ordinance out of the zoning chapter and into chapter 18 (subdivisions), a change consistent with a planning-board recommendation. The planning board’s motion and the solicitor’s advice led the council to approve placing the ordinance material in chapter 18.
Separately, the Commons Foundation offered to identify and cover expenses for a monitoring agent to manage deed restrictions and income eligibility for housing created under the ordinance. Planning-board members and residents urged caution: Ed Bowen, a planning-board member, emphasized the monitoring agent’s responsibilities, including income-compliance oversight and a right-of-first-refusal in foreclosure scenarios, and cautioned that only nine state-approved monitoring agents exist and that the town needed clear qualifications if it accepted a non‑state agent.
Councilors and Commons Foundation representatives said draft deed-restriction language had been modified so the town (not the monitoring agent) would decide property disposition in a foreclosure, reducing potential agent liability. After discussion, a councilor moved and the council approved delegating the monitoring-agent identification task to the foundation that offered assistance; the transcript records that the motion referenced the foundation variably (Commons Foundation in earlier discussion and 'Farmers Foundation' in the motion language). The council asked staff to circulate the foundation’s proposed job description and the draft deed-restriction language to the planning board and return with comments at a subsequent meeting.
What this means: The ordinance language will be considered as a subdivision regulation and the foundation will begin identifying potential monitoring agents for the council and planning board to review; qualifications, insurance, and foreclosure provisions will be decided in a service contract and accompanying deed restrictions.
