AHC Letter to the Jericho Selectboard - November 2024

November 13, 2024

Jericho Affordable Housing Committee


To the Jericho Selectboard,

The Affordable Housing Committee (AHC) was created to identify ways that Jericho could “increase the availability of affordable housing in order to support a more diverse, vibrant, and inclusive community by lowering economic, racial, and social barriers to living in Jericho.”

Our charter tasks the AHC with collecting relevant data, advising town regulatory bodies, educating the public on and advocating for affordable housing. We believe the AHC has completed those duties. The AHC has worked with the Planning Commission to identify obstacles to affordable housing in Jericho and solutions that will remove those barriers and has shared those findings and recommendations with the Selectboard and the Public. Notable successes include:

  • Recommending changes in regulations to allow accessory dwelling units in all zoning districts (before the State mandate)
  • Recommending changes in permitted uses to allow multi-unit dwellings in all zoning districts
  • Recommending changes in regulations to allow smaller lot sizes in the village districts
  • Supporting the acquisition of property (Railroad Circle) by the Town to be used for building aƯordable housing units
  • Contributing to the development and passage of a Resolution on housing in Jericho with targets and measures of success
  • Completing a housing assessment that demonstrated
    • Jericho’s slowed development of new housing has been concentrated at the higher end of the price spectrum
    • that existing home sales in Jericho have been at the higher end of the price spectrum
    • that housing stock in Jericho is more diverse than what is currently being built and sold – suggesting that these trends are new

Having completed these tasks, the AHC has concluded that the next steps towards meeting the goal of more housing choices in Jericho require direction and action from the Select Board. The AHC recommends that the Select Board:

  • Respond to the AHC recommendations in the 2023 Housing Report
  • Add staffing capacity for identifying funding opportunities and project management
  • Support and invest in municipal wastewater systems
  • Create and contribute to an Infrastructure Reserve Fund
  • Build housing on the Railroad Circle property – perhaps through partnership with Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity or a similar entity with proven success at building housing affordable to lower- and middle-income households.

Pending additional charges from the Select Board, the Affordable Housing Committee is committed to:

  • Producing a yearly housing report as tasked by the Housing Resolution
  • Continuing to monitor the Town’s progress on housing and infrastructure goals
  • Coordinating an annual convening on the State of Housing in Jericho, timed with the release of our yearly report and recommendations
  • Reviewing DRB Applications for their potential to create affordable or missing middle housing and reviewing applications’ HOA bylaws for exclusionary rules that are not consistent with the Town’s housing goals

Finally, in direct reference to discussion at a November Selectboard Meeting - if the Selectboard is looking for someone to perform the first pass of reviewing HOA bylaws for any development seeking the Town to take over their private road(s), the AHC is able and willing to perform such a service.

Having completed the initial tasks set out in our Charter and produced specific recommendations for action, the AHC hereby will reduce frequency of meetings and scope of work (see above) until otherwise instructed by the Select Board. Our next meeting will be February 11, 2025 at which time we will discuss response and guidance from you as well as meeting potential new members and planning our approach to meeting the above commitments for 2025/26.

Response can be directed to all members of the Committee. We are currently operating in ad hoc fashion and sharing leadership responsibilities.

Sincerely,

The Jericho Affordable Housing Committee

Members: Stacy Burnett, Sarahjane Dube, Erik Glitman, Friederike Keating, Chuck Lacy