Town Awarded $15K Grant to Review 40B Proposal Off West St

While 40B remains a hot-button issue in town since ; the town did receive some good news Tuesday regarding the review process of the proposed development.

Medfield has been awarded up to $15,000 under the 40B Technical Assistance Grant Program by the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, according to Assistant Town Administrator Kristine Trierweiler.

"This is the [grant] that representative [Denise] Garlick had notified [the town] that the [Zoning Board of Appeals] was eligible for $15,000 in zoning assistance to review the 40B [proposal off West Street],” Trierweiler said. … “This $15,000 does not come to [the town], it is paid directly to the consultant. So the consultant will send us an invoice, I will approve it if the work has been done and then it goes directly to Mass. Housing Partnership and they pay the bill directly.”

The Medfield Board of Selectmen voted to sign the acceptance letter and receive the financial assistance needed for the ZBA’s consultant to review Gatehouse Group’s 40B proposal.

Trierweiler said, however, the grant money can only be used to review the 40B project presently before the ZBA and not be used to fund the development and implementation of an Affordable Housing Production Plan.

“[The money] is only eligible to be used for the actual review of the 40B that is in front of the ZBA at this time,” Trierweiler, who also sits on the Affordable Housing Committee said. “It is very specific and is between the consultant and the Mass. Housing Partnership.”

Trierweiler said the town must begin a housing production plan “immediately” in order to be eligible for any of the safe-harbor provisions – or 40B protections – once Gatehoues begins development.

“[The plan] needs to be under production,” Trierweiler said in order to protect the town from future 40B developments popping up around town unwarranted.

To get the production plan started, Trierweiler asked the selectmen to sign contracts for the Affordable Housing Committee, which they did Tuesday.

“We have a contract with Judi [Barrett’s] company to begin [work on the affordable housing production plan],” Trierweiler said.

Barrett is the town’s 40B consultant.

“There’s been some offers from Gatehouse to fund that $15,000 to do the housing production plan as well as other sources of funds … [but] I’m hoping to find a third party to pay for that production plan.”

The contracts signed by the Board of Selectmen Tuesday totaled up to $25,000 worth of work to be done by the town’s consultants, according to Trierweiler.

“[In addition to the $15,000 contract], there’s an additional not-to-exceed fee of $10,000 and that’s for additional work that Judi’s been given from the Affordable Housing Committee,” Trierweiler said. “That’s actually done on an hourly basis but there is a maximum of not-to-exceed $10,000. We don’t expect to exceed that.”

Peterson recalled a large number of residents expressing interest in participating in an Affordable Housing Committee to address the 40B issue in town and asked Trierweiler if those people could join the committee if interested.

“Absolutely,” Trierweiler said. “There’s four active members for the Affordable Housing Committee and a fifth member will be rejoining the committee. More [members] would be great.”

If anyone is interested in joining the Affordable Housing Committee, contact for more information.

“We had a fairly substantial group of interested citizens that are motivated about the 40B issue,” Peterson said.