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Select Board asks state to consider RFP approach, affordable criteria for 0 Lyman parcel
Summary
Town leaders and the Affordable Housing Trust told the Select Board they are urging DCAM to use an RFP (not a straight auction) for 0 Lyman Street under the Affordable Homes Act to preserve local input on affordability; the board authorized a final letter and to work with the Housing Trust on subsidy/criteria options.
Westborough officials told the Select Board they are pressing the state to avoid a straight auction for a Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAM) parcel at 0 Lyman Street identified under the Affordable Homes Act and instead pursue a request-for-proposals that would allow local influence on affordability components.
Town staff explained the Affordable Homes Act has placed a number of state-owned parcels into a disposition process designed to accelerate housing production; DCAM initially intended to auction this parcel but town staff and the Affordable Housing Trust asked DCAM to consider an RFP that could include local affordability criteria or a Trust subsidy. Select Board members and the Trust said the town’s goal is to preserve some ability to require or encourage affordable units despite statutory constraints.
Trustee Alan Edinburg told the board that auctioning parcels without affordability requirements could undermine the town’s ongoing work to meet Mass. Gen. Laws Chapter 40B benchmarks and that the Trust is exploring subsidy sizes and partnership bids to protect the town’s affordable-housing goals. “The thought of these properties being auctioned without any consideration to affordable component has caught these organizations off guard,” he said.
Staff noted the parcel is just under 6 acres and that, under the state framework referenced by DCAM, the minimum density is four units per acre, which could yield roughly 20 units as a baseline. The board voted 4–0 to authorize the town manager to finalize and send a letter to DCAM in coordination with the Affordable Housing Trust and to authorize the Select Board chair to sign the letter when complete.
Next steps include finalizing the town letter with suggested RFP criteria or a potential Trust subsidy, continuing discussions with DCAM, and seeking a legal opinion about how state disposition rules may interact with local zoning and affordability requirements.
