Several bills filed by Sen. Robert L. Hedlund that would bring needed reform to the state’s affordable housing law have been heard by the Joint Committee on Housing. 

Among the legislation filed by Sen. Hedlund, the committee’s ranking minority member, is Senate Bill 646, which would crack down on developers who try to pocket excess profits that rightfully belongs to the host community. A recent Senate Post Audit & Oversight Committee study, conducted at the request of Sen. Hedlund, verified findings by the state Inspector General that 40B developers routinely took advantage of lax state oversight to inflate construction expenses and conceal profits. The committee report endorsed S 646, as well as another bill proposed by Sen. Hedlund, Senate Bill 772, which would cap project densities.

“Both the state Inspector General and Senate Post Audit & Oversight Committee have said that the Legislature needs to take swift action to strengthen oversight rules and make sure these types of abuses never happen again,” Sen. Hedlund said. “Two years ago, DHCD and other 40B advocates told the Joint Committee on Housing that there were no cost certification problems. We simply can’t trust them to fix these problems on their own.”

A budget amendment filed in May by Sen. Hedlund giving the state Inspector General power to audit all 40B projects and go after all owed money initially passed the Senate by a 37-1 vote..

During the hearing, Sen. Hedlund voiced his concern that most of the pro-40B advocates did not address specific bills before the committee, but simply tried to universally portray reform efforts as an attack against affordable housing.

“If they had taken the time to read any of the 66 bills on the hearing’s agenda, instead of reflexively opposing everything, they would have discovered that many of the bills proposed, including my bills, would actually strengthen the law,” Sen. Hedlund said. “I would have thought that so-called affordable housing advocates would support efforts to preserve affordable units in perpetuity, or require developers to include more affordable units in their plans.”

During the hearing, when asked by Sen. Hedlund, Vincent O’Donnell, president of CHAPA, the state’s biggest 40B proponent, couldn’t name one bill of the 66 before the committee that he could support.

Four bills proposed by Sen. Hedlund -- which would require 40B projects to meet local wetlands bylaws (Senate Bill 770), require affordable units to remain affordable in perpetuity (Senate Bill 771), require 40B projects proposed for state recognized historic district to undergo an appropriateness review (Senate Bill 772), and require the state to compile a public database of all proposed 40B projects (Senate Bill 773) – have each been endorsed by the Massachusetts Municipal Association. The Sierra Club has endorsed Senate Bill 770. Several local historic district commissions have endorsed Senate Bill 772.

Sen. Hedlund has also proposed legislation that would:

increase the amount of affordable housing required as part of a 40B project;

place restrictions on the size of commercial  and non-residential components of 40B projects;

prevent the construction of McMansions and luxury condos under 40B, and;

require the Department of Housing and Community Development to enforce all use restrictions, covenants, and other conditions included in comprehensive permits.

“For years now the Legislature has been unable or unwilling to enact serious 40B reform, and resent among our communities continues to grow,” Sen. Hedlund said. “I hope my colleagues on the Housing Committee realize that if we don’t act now, and pass some meaningful reform legislation, that there is a very good chance the voters could decide to erase the law altogether in 2010.”