05/22/2026
The state’s affordable housing crisis continues to be front and center on voters’ minds. This includes the Legislature considering several pieces of housing legislation, potential ballot measures (rent control and starter homes), and budget funding (including for vouchers).
The Harvard Press story below on the challenges and realities of building a 234 apartment (almost all market rate) unit multifamily housing in Harvard under the 2021 MBTA Communities Act highlights how the law still isn’t producing much housing, and the conventional wisdom on Beacon Hill continues to be that housing production will lower rents and home sales (versus increasing publicly-subsidized housing. Thoughts?
From the Harvard Press:
https://harvardpress.com/News/News-Articles/plans-for-234-apartments-cannot-advance-without-state-grants-for-new-water-sewer-system
“Minco Corporation wants to build 234 rental apartments in the town’s multifamily district at the intersection of Route 2 and Ayer Road, but it needs state grants to afford the development’s expensive water and sewer system.
Minco representative Alex Loth asked the Select Board Tuesday evening to apply for two grants to help pay for a $9 million system to serve the multifamily homes; Loth said Minco would contribute $1.5 million toward the system.
Project proponent Lou Russo said he believes the town is “very well positioned” to qualify for two grants of up to $5 million each from the MassWorks and MassHousing programs. “So the hope is that the town does not have to do any bond issue to pay for this,” he said. He pointed out that Harvard had already received $1.1 million from the state’s Catalyst Fund to design the sewer and water system, a task completed by engineering firm Woodard & Curran last March and reported in the April 17 issue of the Harvard Press.
At that time, engineers had produced two plans. One is a $16 million system designed specifically for extension to Ayer Road’s commercial district that includes Blanchard, Lancaster County, and Old Mill roads. The other is a $9 million system to serve the proposed apartments, using components and a layout less easily extensible to the commercial district.
The $9 million system is what Russo said he and Minco want to pursue, saying it could be extended to Ayer Road. He said the sewer plant proposed for the system would be close enough to Ayer Road to allow for “tie-ins up and down the road in the future.”
But Russo’s confidence that the town could get two grants was not shared by interim Town Administrator Dawn Dunbar. “Both Eric [Ryder, DPW director] and I think the chance of getting more than one grant is slim,” she told the board. She also said the grants are meant for “shovel-ready” projects, a status not applicable to this project. “They want something that is ready to go the minute we get the money.” Meeting the June 3 application deadline would also be difficult, she said.
Minco Corp. has not yet submitted an application to the Planning Board, but on Tuesday presented its own fiscal analysis showing a $999,000 annual revenue to the town from property tax, excise tax, and community preservation surcharges. The “net benefit” to Harvard, Minco estimated, would be $523,000 annually against municipal costs of $476,000 for schools and police and fire services.
According to Minco’s preliminary plans, “Harvard Village” would consist of five buildings containing a total of 234 rental apartments. Two-bedroom units would number 117 while the remaining 117 apartments would be studios, one-bedrooms, or one-bedrooms with dens.
Situated next to the new Boston Badminton facility, the apartments would be built on the town’s 8-acre multifamily zone, approved by Town Meeting in 2024 in compliance with the state’s MBTA Communities Act. However, the plans indicate that Minco will apply for permits under provisions of both the multifamily bylaw and the recently replaced Ayer Road Village Special Permit zoning. The developer is entitled to do so under a state law that allows older zoning to be used if permission was granted before the new zoning was enacted.
But exactly how many affordable units would be required in this mixed zoning plan is unclear. Minco has proposed a total of 17 affordable units, but at Tuesday’s Select Board meeting Planning Board Chair John McCormack said it appeared that at least 25 affordable units would be needed. The Planning Board will need to see a formal application before it could know for sure.
Chair Kara Minar said the board was not prepared on Tuesday to vote on the developers’ request to apply for the grants in the next several weeks, noting that the agenda had not alerted the public that a vote might be taken. “You’re asking us to make a decision of this magnitude in under a month’s time without having any of the proper due diligence available or completed.” She added, “Imagine going forward without having done some forums or charrettes” on the proposal.
