Lexington Housing Trust Votes to Back Downtown Parking and Housing Capacity Study

LEXINGTON — May 21, 2026 — Lexington Affordable Housing Trust votes to support a downtown circulation and housing study while confronting a 400-unit gap to its 10 percent affordable housing goal. The board voted unanimously May 21 to authorize Chair Elaine Tung to sign a letter backing the town Economic Development Department's One Stop for Growth application, which examines how parking and multimodal circulation in Lexington Center affect housing capacity. Trustee Mark Sandin presented a strategic planning framework showing the trust averages three new deed-restricted units per million dollars spent across leveraged programs, and that at the current pace of roughly nine units a year the town's 400-unit gap would take more than 40 years to close — or require roughly $7 million annually to achieve in 20 years. Sandin proposed new leverage-funding guidelines requiring matching funds from state, federal, or private sources, and pointed to this year's $1.6 million EOHLC grant as a repeatable model. Trustee Bill Erickson cautioned that an absolute leveraging requirement could effectively sideline LexHab from future trust funding.