SALISBURY — A proposal that would count mobile homes toward the town's affordable housing inventory will go before Town Meeting voters this month.
Town officials are seeking approval to submit a home-rule petition to the Legislature that would allow Salisbury to factor mobile/manufactured homes that have remained on the same parcel for 20 or more years into its permanent housing stock.
If approved, Salisbury would be able to meet the requirements of the state's affordable housing law, which has been a goal of officials.
Chapter 40B, the state affordable housing law passed in 1969, affects all communities where less than 10 percent of the housing units are not priced at what the state deems affordable for low- and moderate-income households. In Salisbury, the price must be low enough to be affordable to a family of two earning $52,950.
Under the law, developers in communities that don't meet the 40B requirements can override local zoning bylaws for such things as lot size and setback requirements if they build projects that offer a percentage of the units — 25 percent of units sold and 20 percent of units rented — in the affordable range. As a result, Chapter 40B projects tend to be built more densely to allow as many units as possible on a parcel so they remain financially feasible for developers.
Salisbury has been forced to allow 40B developments in town because the state says only 8.6 percent of the community's housing units are considered affordable under the law.
But town officials have insisted for years that's untrue. If Salisbury were allowed to count its significant number of mobile/manufactured homes as part of its permanent housing stock, it would more than meet the 10 percent threshold, according to Town Manager Neil Harrington.
The home-rule petition request on the May 16 Town Meeting warrant asks the Legislature to allow Salisbury to count mobile/manufactured homes that have been on the same parcel for at least 20 years as of Jan. 1, 2012, as part of its permanent housing inventory.
"This is a question of fairness," Harrington said. "The state classifies all mobile homes as not part of a community's permanent housing stock because they technically can be moved, even though mobile homes in Salisbury haven't been moved in decades. Ignoring that most of these homes provide affordable housing opportunities for people flies in the face of reality. You have all these people in Salisbury living in de facto affordable units that are mobile homes, and the state says, 'you can't count those.'
"Last year, a mobile home (in town) sold for about $50,000. If that isn't affordable housing, I don't know what is."
State housing officials have balked at past attempts statewide to alter the language in the Chapter 40B law to allow mobile/manufactured homes to be counted in permanent housing inventories and the initiatives have failed.
But state Sen. Steven Baddour, D-Methuen, who represents Salisbury, said he and state Rep. Michael Costello, D-Newburyport, would submit the petition to their respective legislative bodies if it passes Town Meeting.
"This proposal makes a lot of sense to me," Baddour said. "I don't know off the top of my head if the petition will pass, but it sounds like a very reasonable request as long as it has the support of Town Meeting."
Baddour added that once the bill is filed, "the games will begin," implying affordable housing advocates who object to changing anything in the 40B statute could try to block its passage.
If approved by the state, the change to Chapter 40B requirements would affect Salisbury only. However, it could be seen as a precedent-setting move, leading other communities to follow Salisbury's example.
"But that's a reasonable precedent to set," Baddour said. "If you have mobile homes that meet the (financial) requirements of 40B as it relates to housing low- to moderate-income households, and the homes haven't been moved in 20 years or more, that meets the spirit of 40B."
When told of Harrington's intention to include the Chapter 40B home-rule petition on the Town Meeting warrant, all five selectmen supported the concept.
Salisbury has had a number of complexes built under Chapter 40B. According to Salisbury Selectman Jerry Klima, the town's experiences with 40B developers has been mixed at best and negative in general.
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