The Growth Fairhaven Needs
And Why Local Developers Are Uniquely Qualified To Make It Happen
The Thick of It
Regular readers know that I’m a big proponent of thickening Fairhaven’s existing neighborhoods and revitalizing our walkable downtown areas. By thickening, I mean allowing our neighborhoods to continue to grow in the incremental way they used to grow before they were effectively frozen in time by restrictive zoning. Thickening in this way is a low-risk strategy for the town and has the highest odds of getting us good results. Low-risk because it’s time-tested: we know that “walkable, seaside New England downtown with housing over shops” works! Low-risk because the potential for failure is spread across a multitude of actors, all of whom have significant skin in the game. When your strategy is to encourage many small projects, then when one project flops, the town is still ok. For a small town like ours, this matters. Heck, it even matters for L.A., where this tower ran into financing issues and (lucky for graffiti artists) its foreign owners can’t even be bothered to put a fence around it:
Thickening is a winning strategy for our town in particular because, despite our relatively small footprint (12 miles2) we’re surrounded by opportunities to thicken. Many streets in our core neighborhoods feature empty or oversized lots that could be developed to add a few more families. Many of our neighborhoods feature a mix of multifamily and single-family homes, many of which could be easily developed to the next increment of growth. These gaps exist in places already served by our existing infrastructure, which, as I argued last week, means we have the opportunity to add more paying customers to the network without adding more infrastructure (and debt and maintenance obligations). And for those who might profess concern about the “character of the neighborhood,” all of this incremental growth would be spread throughout our current neighborhoods, strengthening their vibrancy and walkability.
And incremental doesn’t have to mean slow. Incremental growth as I’m describing is potentially the fastest way we can grow our housing stock, revitalize our downtown areas, and fill town coffers. Large greenfield projects, despite their promise of hundreds or thousands of housing units, take years of work to come to fruition, usually with large political fights along the way. These are large, often long-shot bets that may not even come through, even as local officials sacrifice the bulk of their time and energy on them. Conversely, small infill projects, where allowed, can be initiated in a matter of weeks and months. As these projects happen, they attract further attention and resources to the town and create momentum for growth.
Small Developers, Big… Energy
If the town is serious about thickening its current core neighborhoods, there’s one key player it needs to be encouraging: small, local developers. While I know that for some of you, particularly my friends on the left, the “d” word is synonymous with all sorts of unsavory types, consider that you probably have a few friends who fit this description. A postal worker I know bought the house across the street from me, lived in it for a while as he fixed it up, and then rented it out as a two-family. He’s in the process of beautifully restoring another house in town. That’s incremental development! I mentioned Julio a while back. He’s restored several beautiful downtown storefront buildings and added apartments above them. I’ve watched as he moves as quickly as the red tape will allow him to make these projects happen. He’s personally created over 20 units of housing within the same timeframe that it would take town leaders to apply for a grant to hire some consultants who will tell them that apartments over storefronts are a good idea.
So what should the town be doing to encourage and cultivate incremental developers? To answer that question, I reached out to local developer housing creator and business facilitator Jason Lanagan. Jay’s behind a lot of great projects in the region, including the revitalization of Ferry Street, which will soon be home to the beautiful neighborhood bistro Olivia’s. I asked Jay what town leaders can do to support local developers. Within three seconds I had a response in my inbox with a lot of ideas that I’ll do my best to distill.
First, a few don’ts:
DON’T cut the education budget. According to Jay, “the education budget should increase every year as it costs more money every year to provide an excellent education… and if a town is growing then enrollment should increase.” There’s also a strong argument for this from a municipal finance standpoint, according to Jay, who knows that a better educational system “translates into higher property values and more tax dollars for the municipality.”
DON’T let internet trolls dictate terms. Jay elaborates: “Unprofessionally managed towns give nasty, NIMBY, Facebook mobs too much power. It’s a devastating phenomenon that is a reality in 2024. Cities and towns need a master plan that they adhere to even in the face of vocal opposition.”
Next a few do’s:
Update zoning codes. Stronghaven readers are no strangers to the types of changes that make incremental development possible. Things like reducing minimum lot sizes, doing away with parking minimums, and allowing mixed-use throughout our neighborhoods unlock opportunities for small developers to do their thing. As Jay notes, “there are many case studies of other municipalities that have done this work effectively.” We don’t need to reinvent the wheel— just use what other successful towns have implemented as a template.
Provide small developers with access to financial incentives. Jay remarks, “TIFS and TIES are like 401k’s for the town, they are investments that start small and grow over time.” Our downtown core is the most valuable land, on a per-acre basis, in town. Anything that encourages investment in this core is going to pay back serious dividends over the long term.
Hire pro-business professionals to run municipal offices. By “pro-business,” Jay means officials “who understand and continuously educate themselves on the matters of growing a city/town and providing excellent services, and who are connected to the state and federal government’s vast educational and program resources.”
Adopt a “How Can We Help You?” attitude toward local developers. According to Jay, town officials who want to encourage local developers need to be transparent and proactive in helping projects succeed. Fairhaven’s Planning Board recently streamlined its permitting process, assembling departments earlier in the process to allow for greater transparency and more rapid feedback on proposals. Coupled with zoning reform, this revised process has the potential to remove obstacles for small developers, for whom even small delays tank projects.
Unleash the Swarm
Many of our cherished, historic local neighborhoods were created by enterprising citizens who, without access to any capital, let alone Wall Street financing, built housing and beautiful downtown buildings. While building nowadays is now understandably more expensive, we’re still in a position to unleash a swarm of local developers who have real skin in the game when it comes to the success of and quality of life in this town. A recent guest post by Coby Lefkowitz on Noah Smith’s Substack speaks to the unique role that small developers can play:
When you build in your own neighborhood, a pride imperative materializes. If you have to go by a project frequently, you want to feel good about the fruits of your labor. There are few things worse than spending several years creating something, only to be disappointed in the final result. Insult is added to injury if your friends, family, co-workers, or adversaries (especially your adversaries) pass your project and are likewise less than enthused with the product. Believe me, they’ll tell you, and it doesn’t exactly feel good.
It’s well worth reading the rest of the post for a more in-depth look at the challenges that small developers face when it comes to financing.
If you want more of what’s great about this town, then thickening our existing neighborhoods is the best way to get there. And the good news is that the people who can thicken our neighborhoods are in many cases already living next door. Before making big bets on large, risky, and unproven projects that cater to heavily-financed developers who have all the leverage, we should be looking first to cultivate a group of local developer talent who can rapidly help us to grow in ways that will benefit us all for years to come.