Harwich Gets Two-Year ‘Safe Harbor’ Approval Allows More Flexibility With Affordable Housing

HARWICH – The town has been certified as a “Safe Harbor” community for the next two years, allowing the municipality to reject 40B comprehensive permit housing developments considered unfriendly to the community. 

 Town Administrator Jay McGrail said the town received notice from the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) of the certification on Sept. 18.

 “We can approve a 40B as a friendly 40B if it's extremely beneficial to the town,” he said. “It puts us in the driver's seat.” 

Under Safe Harbor provisions, the zoning board can reject a 40B comprehensive permit project if it is not consistent with local needs.

 The Safe Harbor certification is based on the town having a valid housing production plan and the approval, over a calendar year, of 1 percent of the total year-round housing units as affordable to low and moderate income households. The units must be eligible for inclusion on the state’s subsidized housing inventory (SHI). 

 The percentage is based on the 2020 federal census, at which time the town had 6,581 year-round housing units. In order to qualify for the certification, the town needed to show it approved 66 year-round housing units in the calendar year. The affordable housing trust’s 60-unit 40B Pennrose project proposed for the former Marceline property at 456 Queen Anne Rd. and the 10 units at 5 Bell’s Neck Rd. — the West Harwich Schoolhouse project — totaling 70 units are all eligible for the SHI list.

 The 5 Bell’s Neck Rd. project became eligible when the units were approved as local action units under the state’s local initiative program on Aug. 12. The certification will run through Aug. 11, 2028, as long as the units continue to meet the certification criteria. 

The town’s current SHI list stands at 9.74 percent and includes the 242 units approved under a 40B approval for the Pine Oaks Village IV project planned for North Harwich. Safe Harbor status can also be reached by having 10 percent of the town’s housing units included on the SHI list.

Recent large 40B projects such as Pine Oaks Village IV and the Pennrose project have generated a lot of debate in town regarding infrastructure and community character impacts. There has been a call from residents for much smaller affordable housing projects spread throughout the community. That is also a recommendation in the newly approved local comprehensive plan. 

McGrail said that the POVIV and Pennrose projects are in the process of applying for tax credit financing through the EOHLC. 

McGrail praised the efforts of town planner Christine Flynn, appeals board chair Brian Sullivan and affordable housing trust member Brendan Lowney for doing their homework and getting the facts together for approval by the EOHLC.

 “It’s good news for the town of Harwich,” McGrail said.