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Westborough planning director previews inclusionary zoning bylaw to broaden affordable tiers
Summary
Planning Director Jenny Jengris told the Housing Trust the proposed inclusionary zoning bylaw would consolidate affordability rules, set a 10‑unit minimum project threshold, create lower‑income rental tiers (including units targeted below 80% AMI), add a local preference and require 25% of affordable units be ADA‑compliant. The planning board will hold a public hearing Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Jenny Jengris, Westborough’s director of planning, told the Housing Trust at its meeting that the town will present an inclusionary zoning article on the October town meeting warrant intended to diversify the town’s affordable housing stock.
Jengris said the draft bylaw consolidates several affordability provisions into a single provision, adds a 10‑unit minimum threshold (based on an economic feasibility analysis) and changes how affordability tiers are calculated. “We have a 10 to 20% affordability requirement for all residential development,” she said, and the new bylaw would make that component consistent across zoning sections while adding flexibility so developers can build without incurring a loss.
The draft proposes two tiers for rental projects: a larger share targeted at deep affordability (examples discussed centered on 50%–80% AMI) and an additional smaller share targeted at higher workforce thresholds (proposed at up to 110% AMI). Ownership projects would remain targeted at 80% AMI. The bylaw also would require a local preference in marketing (current residents, employees of town businesses and town employees, then veterans) and specify that 25% of affordable units be ADA‑compliant.
Trustees and staff discussed how to set the AMI averaging rule. A staff member cautioned that the current proposal uses a 65% AMI average for lower tiers but said changing that to 70% might be more feasible; a trustee who reviewed other towns’ approaches said, “If you look at changing the average from 65 to 70, it means you can do a mix of 60/80% units, or you could do fewer 50% units and more 80 units,” giving developers more flexibility.
Jengris and trustees also reviewed a payment‑in‑lieu formula included in the bylaw that ties the fee to HUD income limits; staff described the calculation as twice the 80% AMI income limit for a family of four, which using 2024 figures would be about $195,600 per unit and would be indexed over time.
The planning board will hold the first public hearing on the article Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Forbes Building. Trustees agreed to provide feedback and authorized a letter asking the planning board to consider the revisions discussed, including restricting mitigation funds to housing uses, clarifying AMI averaging, and confirming which tiers count toward the Subsidized Housing Inventory.
