Manhattan Remodel and Cape Cod Affordable

The project in Mashpee, MA, takes a very different look at house and home, this time as a community response to a housing shortage that is pricing working families out of their own communities. Mashpee, where the average home price is $450,000, with few or no single-family homes available for under $300,000, is responding to the need for diverse housing in a number of ways. Bob visits Mashpee Commons, the ongoing development of a town-centered planned development that will feature all aspects of residential, commercial, community, civic, and religious building when complete.

Beyond the town center, Bob looks at land development and building, which have been constrained by zoning laws requiring two-acre parcels per housing unit. Bob is joined by developer Joe Valle, who seized the opportunity to bypass the ordinance and construct a mix of affordable and market housing at River Hill by invoking Massachusetts’s’ Act 40B, the state land-use law that says that 3 percent of a town’s development must be dedicated to affordable housing.

Once qualified, Valle was able to use a 4.5-acre parcel of land that was ill suited to development as two-acre lots and instead develop them as a neighborhood of 11 homes, 4 of which are affordable by definition and will be sold by lottery to qualified buyers. The homeowners will select from three designs — ranch, cape, and colonial — and will have the same building materials and finishes as the market homes located in the neighborhood. Due to increased density, River Hill will be able to function as a neighborhood with winding streets, accessible house fronts, and adjacent backyards. The homes will all be Energy Star–certified for efficiency, with a focus on materials that make for easy maintenance and upkeep. The Cape Cod story will look at all aspects of affordability, from building, to purchase, to upkeep, to sustainable communities in Massachusetts and as it pertains to the rest of the country.