Finger-pointing at State House over housing bill
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Key lawmakers traded angry accusations yesterday over who was to blame — the House or the Senate — for the General Assembly’s failure, before closing down Tuesday night, to give cities and towns relief from a tidal wave of high-density housing proposals from developers hoping to cash in on a year-old “affordable housing” law. By day’s end yesterday, one influential senator was suggesting the lawmakers return to the State House — at least one more time this year — to approve a moratorium to stop the flood of construction proposals until the General Assembly can sort through the competing concerns of the communities, the construction industry and low-income housing advocates. The suggestion elicited this written statement from House Majority Leader Gordon Fox, D-Providence: “I have yet to see the compromise legislation. If it is acceptable, I would be willing to meet with Speaker [William] Murphy and the Senate leaders to discuss the possibility of returning to consider this bill.” But first came a day of charges and countercharges of “grandstanding” and “backdoor machinations” over the year-old law that positioned “for-profit” developers to take advantage of benefits previously reserved for those who built affordable housing only. The benefits include a shortened community-approval process and potential construction subsidies of up to $500,000 per project, as long as at least one of every five units — or 20 percent — is sold or rented at below-market rates. The law, passed a year ago, has already led the state housing agency known as the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation to notify the developers proposing to build 1,734 new homes and apartments in Westerly, Charlestown, Bristol, Exeter, Lincoln, Cumberland, Coventry, Smithfield, Johnston and North Kingstown that they potentially qualify for the subsidies. Out of the total, only 386 have been categorized by the would-be developers as “affordable units” at prices ranging from $135,000 to $154,742. “Once again, the fingers must point at the Senate,” said House Corporations Committee chairman Brian Kennedy, D-Hopkinton, yesterday in a widely circulated e-mail. More : projo.com |