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To the editor:
Mr. Ageloff's letter (Times, July 22) was headlined "Beware role of Chapter 40B at Conomo Point." I think a more appropriate title would have been, "Beware of bad permitting, not Chapter 40B."
While I will leave to Essex residents what they should do with Conomo Point, I did wish to comment on how the letter raised the specter of the Chapter 40B boogeyman in Essex's land-use discussions.
Despite the letter's fears, statistics show that Chapter 40B is the principal reason why moderately priced housing and multi-family housing has been constructed in Massachusetts. Without Chapter 40B, this type of housing would not be built, which is critical to workers, families, and young and old people throughout the commonwealth.
I know from experience as a land use planner, town counsel, real estate attorney, and a former member of a zoning board of appeals that, left to their own devices, many, many municipalities make it very difficult (some would say impossible) to construct housing. It is far too easy for land use boards to succumb to neighborhood opponents, natural resistance to change, or other professed reasons to deny new homes.
Landowners do not instinctively select Chapter 40B to seek approval for their housing. Instead, if they choose to move forward under Chapter 40B, it is commonly done after a reasonable analysis concludes that local approvals for even modest proposals are highly uncertain and subject to excessive delay under existing bylaws and permitting procedures.
Therefore, although it may be convenient to criticize Chapter 40B, it is better to critique what municipal boards are doing (or not doing to foster (or frustrate) well designed development, whether residential or commercial.
The letter cited two projects to challenge Chapter 40B.
In fact, the Ipswich project is well-designed and will provide much needed housing for people of varied income levels. The courts reviewed the opponents' various challenges and determined that the project was lawful and should go forward.
In Manchester, there is a highly successful Chapter 40B project smack in the middle of downtown that was tastefully designed, contained a reasonable density, and earned several design awards. There is also a tastefully constructed Chapter 40B project in Hamilton at the former Junction ice cream stand known as Carriage House Junction.
In these instances, the developer and design teams worked collaboratively with the local boards to implement very successful Chapter 40B projects (disclosure: I was a member of the Manchester Zoning Board of Appeals when the Summer Street project was approved and I was legal counsel for the Hamilton project).
This fall's ballot initiative to repeal Chapter 40B should be rejected by the voters because Chapter 40B has provided the only practical means to construct moderately priced housing for workers, families and people of different income levels.
It has been very effective in creating high quality, tasteful housing.
PETER J. FEUERBACH
Brook Street, Manchester
