By Ethan Forman
DANVERS — A public workshop tonight could help shape the way affordable housing in Danvers is created in the future.
At 7 p.m., the Affordable Housing Committee will host a discussion on the creation of an affordable-housing trust fund, something the committee has proposed as a warrant article for Annual Town Meeting in May. The workshop takes place at the Danvers Senior Center, 25 Stone St.
State law in 2005 streamlined the way communities could set up affordable-housing trusts, and 30 have done so since then, according to a press release from Susan Fletcher, the town's assistant director of planning and human services.
Such a trust could advance the town's goal of making 10 percent of its housing stock affordable. The trust is also seen as an alternative to the state's Chapter 40B "anti-snob zoning" laws under which developers can skirt most zoning laws in exchange for making a portion of the development affordable.
Once created, the trust would allow Danvers to create a separate fund to be used to support the construction of affordable homes, rehab existing ones, or assist low- and moderate-income homebuyers, without having to wait for Town Meeting action first.
"Unfortunately, Town Meeting only meets one or two times a year, and we are afraid we would lose opportunities" to buy and sell available properties, said the Affordable Housing Committee's chairman, selectmen Chairman Gardner Trask.
The town has received about $500,000 for affordable-housing initiatives from the Avalon Danvers redevelopment at the former Danvers State Hospital, money that could be used to seed the trust, Trask said.
Staff writer Ethan Forman can be reached at 978-338-2673 or eforman@salemnews.com.
