Lincoln’s affordable accessory apartment program OK’d by state

(Editor’s note: This story was originally published on or about Feb. 13, 2021 but was lost after a website outage and later recovered. The paragraph on loan terms was updated on March 1, 2021.)

Lincoln’s plan to offer tax rebates and loans to residents who create affordable accessory apartments on their property has finally won approval from the state, though the local Housing Commission must now review details of the program, which was formulated four years ago.

Residents voted to approve the Affordable Accessory Apartment program (AAA) in 2017 pending eventual state authorization. The legislature passed H.2645 in January and Gov. Baker signed it into law shortly thereafter. At the time, the goal of the program was threefold:

• To ensure Lincoln’s SHI (subsidized housing inventory) remained above the state-required ratio of 10% of the town’s entire housing stock so as to avoid a 40B housing development
• To encourage the development of scattered affordable housing units throughout the town, as opposed to concentrating them in one or two large projects
• To provide a way for those with unused living space in their homes to earn income from that space, and to reduce their property tax burden

The recent opening of Oriole Landing has obviated the first need, “but the other two are still relevant, and are of even greater importance now than when the program was first developed,” Housing Commission Chair Allen Vander Meulen said. The state’s official SHI for Lincoln is 14% since the opening of Oriole Landing and is expected to be about 12.5% once the 2020 census figures and other variables are factored in, he added.

As approved in 2017, the AAA program also offers an unrestricted “loan” of $25,000 from the town. Ten percent of the original balance is forgiven each year, resulting in a zero balance after 10 years. The loan would be secured by a lien on the property but would not be contingent on the homeowner’s income. Any unpaid balance would have to be repaid if and when a homeowner stops participating in the AAA program.

To qualify, each affordable accessory apartment must have a separate entrance and off-street parking, and must not exceed 1,200 square feet or 35 percent of the home’s square footage. After receiving a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals, landlords would have to select tenants from a waiting list of those who applied to the town and have certain income limits.

“Given the four-year gap in time since the town approved it, we need to determine what if anything needs to change for the program to conform to the legal and economic situation we as a town are in today, and to ensure that the program is implemented in a way that is sensitive to the concerns and challenges of those of us who live here in Lincoln,” Vander Meulen said.

“I imagine getting the AAA program up and running will require coordination and perhaps approval from several town governing bodies and offices, so it will likely take some time to ‘get there’.

“I would like to extend our gratitude to State Rep. Tom Stanley, who has diligently worked for years to get this rebate past the various legislative roadblocks it faced until it was finally approved, and to Pam Gallup, who did the lion’s share of the work needed to develop the program and then get it approved at Town Meeting,” he added.