WARREN - Warren officials will unveil a broad new plan to address the town's affordable housing needs at a public workshop this Thursday, Sept. 16. The plan, which is still just a draft, was written over the last several months in response to a state mandate to have a plan on the books by December. Warren, like every other town in Rhode Island, must submit the plan as part of the state's Low and Moderate Income Housing Act.

"This is not set in stone," said Warren Town Planner Michelle Maher, who worked on it with the town's six-member affordable housing commission and several paid consultants.

"We want to get feedback on it, and hear what people have to say."

The plan spells out how Warren plans to meet the act's mandate that 10 percent of the town's housing units are "affordable," or subsidized either by local, state or federal governments.

While the goal is 10 percent, Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation spokesman Chris Barnett said 4.6 percent of Warren's housing — 225 houses and apartments out of 4,889 in the town — are "affordable."

To reach the 10 percent goal, Ms. Maher said Warren will likely look at re-use and urban redevelopment strategies to encourage the construction of affordable housing. Trying to address the situation through new home construction, she said, just isn't feasible.

"There's not enough land to meet that goal," she said.

"We get 20 building permits per year on average. If that continued, 75 percent of the new home starts in Warren over the next 20 years would have to be affordable."

"It's just not going to happen."

Strategies

Instead, the plan's six strategies for meeting the state goal use more innovative approaches. Under the plan, the town would:

n Use vacant land in developed areas and identify town buildings — such as the Liberty Street or Mary V. Quirk schools — to use for affordable housing if they ever become available. The same would apply to other large buildings, including the town's mills and factory buildings.

As for the schools, re-use as affordable housing would help the town in other ways; public buildings purchased and developed by private developers would put them back on the tax roles, generating income for the town.

n Put controls in place to specify where new affordable housing can take place, "so people couldn't propose 50 lots in an area where there's no sewer or water" access, she said.

n Create town incentives for the construction of affordable housing. The town could offer tax credits or abatements to developers who plan to keep the planned housing "affordable" for at least 30 years. On a similar path, the town could decide to waive local fees and application costs for developers hoping to build affordable units. Under changes to the state housing act enacted in June, such local subsidies are now allowable; they didn't qualify in the past.

n Create an affordable housing land trust, where people who wish to donate land or money for affordable housing uses could do so.

n Create partnerships with affordable housing entities, such as the Bristol-based East Bay Community Development Corporation, to encourage affordable housing development.

n Form an affordable housing board to oversee the town's internal subsidies. Such a group would also be necessary, said Ms. Maher, to make sure developers were following the town's requirements given in return for the subsidy.

n Encourage the development of more varieties of housing, including manufactured homes, accessory apartments and the like. Also, the town would work to preserve it's existing affordable housing stock by keeping rents low through subsidies or other means.

The law

Overall, Ms. Maher said the plan is pretty straightforward, and was being considered in a more informal way by the town long before the state mandated the plan be written.

The bottom line, she said, is that the town wants to broaden affordable housing options here while "protecting what the town has been after for years. We don't want our open areas, like Touisset, to be eaten up by housing."

If the plan is adopted by the town by December, RIHMFC's Mr. Barnett said it will only help Warren.

"Communities that have approved housing plans have more control over development proposals than communities that don't."

A good example, he said, is the "Sweetbriar" plan proposed in Barrington by the EBCDC. That plan was presented to Barrington before the town had an official affordable housing plan. Because it didn't, EBCDC was able to sidestep many of the regulatory processes usually required of developers. Town officials ultimately rejected the plan, but EBCDC has appealed that ruling to the state housing appeals board.

It is unclear how the town will fare in the appeal process. But if the town had a plan on the books when the plan was first proposed, it would have been easier for officials there to reject or accept it based on their own plan to address affordable housing.

"Communities with housing plans can evaluate proposals in regard to their appropriateness or consistency to the housing plan," Mr. Barnett said. "The town has a stronger case for rejecting or amending a proposal if they have a plan."

Next step

After next Thursday's workshop, the plan will have to be reviewed and approved by both the Warren Town Council, Warren Planning Board and residents, since implementing it will require an amendment to the town's comprehensive plan. The council will likely discuss the housing plan on Sept. 21, and the planning board will likely review it shortly thereafter.

A copy of the draft plan is available for review at Warren Town Hall.

Want to attend?

* What: Affordable housing plan public workshop sponsored by Warren Affordable Housing Commission

* When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16

* Where: Warren Town Hall, Main Street

In a nutshell ...

Warren's draft affordable housing plan could encourage the development of affordable housing by:

n Encouraging the use of vacant land, town buildings, and factories and mills for re-use as affordable housing.

* Controling where and how affordable housing development would occur.

* Creating town incentives to make affordable housing more attractive to developers. Such incentives could include abatements, tax incentives and the like.

* Creating an affordable housing board.

* Encouraging the development of housing units through the use of modular homes, accessory apartments and the like.

* Working to keep rents low through incentives and local subsidies.