Affordable housing is a good and necessary thing for government to promote.
But the impending construction of the 12 condominiums to be known as Brierneck Crossing is not a victory for affordable housing. It is simply the cynical use of a good cause to force development in a place where it simply should not be.
Residents of Brier Neck, along with city leaders, have fought to prevent the development since the 1970s, for a number of good reasons.
The most important is that the site is filled marshland — filled by now-retired restaurateur James Sallah, who at the time was planning to construct a restaurant. It is adjacent to a flood plain — it was actually within the Federal Emergency Management Agency's flood plain until the current developer, James Grifoni, got the agency to change the map.
Beyond that, during lengthy hearings before the Zoning Board of Appeals, nearly every agency recommended against placing housing that would essentially stand across from the Good Harbor Beach parking lot.
Perhaps the only positive thing about the decades-long battle is that it could have been worse. At one time, Grifoni hoped to put more than 20 units on the site. Knowing that would be rejected, he cut the number to 12 and sought approval under Chapter 40B, the so-called anti-snob zoning law that allows developers to skirt many local zoning regulations if 25 percent of the units are considered affordable.
But that also highlights the reality of how little this does to address the need for affordable housing. Of the 12 units, only three will be classified as affordable, and they will cost somewhere in the range of $300,000. While that meets the state's definition of affordable housing based on the area's median income, everybody local knows that is not going to help someone of lower-middle income to buy a home today.
Yet, the state's Housing Appeals Committee overruled local boards, finding that the need for affordable housing outweighed the environmental risks. It is a sorry situation when a state board can't see that, while there is a need, this project sure doesn't meet it. It is, in fact, little more than an abuse of a well-intended system.
While Gloucester's ZBA will consider appealing the ruling, its chances of success are dubious. The Housing Appeals Committee rarely reverses its decisions.
It is not just the state that is at fault here, however. Chapter 40B has been around for almost 40 years now, and the city would be immune from it if 10 percent of its housing stock qualified as affordable. In short, the city has had four decades to promote and create affordable housing where it belongs — and it still hasn't.
It is too late to do anything about this development. But it should be a signal to city officials that they must make affordable housing in Gloucester a priority. If they don't, they will once again find themselves fighting, and losing, a battle against another Brierneck.
We'd like to think the state housing appeals panel will actually carry out due diligence regarding Brierneck, come to its senses, and stand by the city board's proper rejection of a just pain bad development plan. If it doesn't city officials must pull clear of the Chapter 40B mandates, and assure that Gloucester's affordable housing stock grows to make the city immune to these types of predatory developments.
If we have to take Brierneck Crossing, one bad project is certainly more than enough.
