CUMBERLAND -- The next time a builder comes to town seeking denser zoning for affordable housing, Cumberland officials say they'll be ready.
Ready with evidence the town is creating affordable housing, and ready with a plan that limits where the developer can build.
Cumberland, the first community to get hit after lawmakers gave private developers incentives to build affordable housing, is now the first community to have a state-approved housing plan that could block such developments.
In essence, the state-approved plan puts the town in a better position to reject affordable housing proposals that don't match the plan, as long as the town follows through and creates affordable housing.
"They have an approved plan. Now they have to implement it," said Derry Riding, a state planner.
The plan takes advantage of new rules, approved last month by the state Plan ning Council, that allow communities to seek state approval for plans to create affordable housing.
The state's affordable housing law allows developers to seek denser zoning for affordable housing in communities where less than 10 percent of the housing is termed affordable. But with a state-approved plan, communities are in a better position to show they are working toward the 10-percent goal.
Katia Balassiano, the town's planning and community development director, said the plan encourages developers to build affordable housing in areas where the land and infrastructure can support it.
To that end, the plan calls for zoning changes that would allow mill buildings and an industrial park to be converted to housing and allow multifamily houses to be built in urban areas on empty lots. It also calls for zoning changes that would let developers squeeze more houses into a development when they agree to sell some units at below-market prices.
The plan also calls for the creation of a housing board to oversee housing policy.
Balassiano said the state expects Cumberland to add 28 affordable housing units a year, until the town reaches 10 percent. According to last year's count, 719 of the town's 12,572 housing units, or 5.7 percent, met the state definition of affordable.
Balassiano called the schedule "very aggressive."
"The first few years we should be OK, because we've got a number of affordable units being produced," she said. But long term, the zoning changes and other measures will be needed to encourage developers to follow the plan, she said.
The rules that let towns seek state approval for housing plans are the first relief towns have received since lawmakers expanded the affordable housing law, giving private developers access to benefits once reserved for nonrofits.
The benefits include a shortened application process, potential construction subsidies of up to $500,000 per project and the potential for denser zoning, as long as one of every five units sells or rents at below-market prices.
Statewide, private developers have unveiled plans to build more than 1,700 new homes and condominiums since lawmakers approved the change last year. About one-fifth of the new units would be affordable.
Cumberland, the first town to get hit, is wrestling with two proposals, one to put 343 condominiums on land zoned for about 35 single-family homes, and one to put 50 houses on land zoned for fewer than half that number.
Mayor Daniel J. McKee said the state-approved plan should put the town in a position to "approve projects that fit" the plan and "reject plans that don't fit."
McKee said he believes the second application before the town -- the one for 50 houses -- is subject to the new plan because the Town Council adopted it before the developer, who is McKee's brother, filed an application.
Even if that theory holds true, Riding said the state-approved plan does not guarantee that the state Housing Appeals Board -- which hears developer appeals when communities reject or scale back affordable housing proposals -- will side with the town.
"It's only one of the things that the state Housing Appeals Board will weigh," she said.
