MONSON — At its July 23 meeting, the Monson Select Board approved the presented Chapter 40B Housing Production Plan, finalizing the required approval process.
This decision comes after the Planning Board officially adopted the plan at its July 16 joint meeting with the Select Board following three months of review to modify the original plan created in 2021, said Ken Comia, the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission’s land use and environment deputy director, at the July 23 meeting.
In approving the plan, the town now has a firm layout for ways to meet the state’s required goal of creating 10% affordable housing, Comia explained. While the document is only a guide, not a mandate, following its goals and strategies will help Monson to avoid the chance of a Chapter 40B Comprehensive Permit project.
These projects would only be required to follow state regulations and be reviewed by the Zoning Board of Appeals, rather than go through the Planning Board as typically required in the town’s process, Comia said.
“There’s actually two really important reasons to have that [housing] production plan in place,” Select Board member Patricia Oney emphasized. “The first is that, if we ever get to the 10% but as long as we’re working on a 0.5% a year, we can stop that comprehensive permit from being allowed.”
Secondly, “there is a lot of grant money that’s available if you’ve got a [housing] production plan in place that’s otherwise not available to towns,” Oney explained.
This additional grant money would focus on potential projects described in the housing production plan in order to support the town in continuing to meet its annual and long-term affordable housing goals, Comia noted.
After discussion, all three Select Board members agreed that approving the housing production plan was a necessary step, ultimately voting to approve the plan.
Oney highlighted that the town will continue to “have many discussions outside of a Select Board meeting” in order to ensure the topic was “available to people at different places at different times so that anybody who wants to participate has the opportunity to do that.”
Hampden Court parking
During the meeting, the Select Board also voted to eliminate parking on the west side of Hampden Court near the intersection with Hampden Avenue. The discussion was raised by resident concerns about the amount of road space available for cars and emergency vehicles when vehicles park on both sides of Hampden Court and Hampden Avenue.
Highway Surveyor Ben Murphy explained that he was first notified of this concern from Select Board Chair John Morrell, who stated that residents had expressed concerns to him. Murphy agreed that vehicles parked in those locations could present issues for other vehicles.
Morrell stated that he spoke with Police Chief Stephen Kozloski about the concerns prior to the meeting. An officer was then asked to visit the location and told two cars to move off the street while on the west side of Hampden Court.
“The officer absolutely agreed that a fire truck and ambulance could not get through there. Cars had trouble getting through there,” Morrell said, noting that the influx of vehicles was connected to a business on the street and was under investigation.
With the Select Board’s decision, Murphy stated that he would install signs on Hampden Court to enforce the newly restricted parking.
