Developer presents 100% affordable housing development design in first community meeting

Causeway Development, the developer of the affordable housing complex Lexington imagines bringing to the intersection of Lowell St. and North St., presented its design on Thursday during its first community meeting. 

Causeway imagines building 40 dwellings at Parcel 68-44, the three-acre property the state gifted to Lexington in 1978. 

Elizabeth Whittaker, founder and principal at Merge Architects, the architecture firm designing the development, said her team aims to honor Lexington’s historical architecture by including inspiration from the mid-century modern style. She also aims to preserve as many native trees as possible and “make it feel like it’s nestled in the woods.”

Each unit would have a balcony and would be allotted one covered parking space. There would be five visitor spaces.

Causeway would finance the project. They would submit the plan to the state for a Project Eligibility Letter, or PEL, under the 40B program. If granted a PEL and the support of Lexington’s Select Board and Affordable Housing Trust, Causeway would then submit the project to the state’s Executive Office for Housing and Livable Communities for approval. To be eligible, at least 20 to 25 percent of the dwellings must be affordable, meaning residents must make 80 percent of Lexington’s area median income or less to live in the development. 

But the plan with this complex is to make 100 percent of the dwellings affordable. 

Dave Traggorth, principal at Causeway, noted “this is a lengthy process” and construction would not begin until the end of 2026 at the earliest. 

A few residents who attended the meeting said they were pleased with the design and believed the project is a good step in the direction of increasing affordable housing in town. 

“This is a very pleasant design. Anyone would be delighted to live here,” Bob Creech, a member of the Planning Board, commented in the Zoom chat during the community meeting. Several of the attendees gave his comment a ‘thumbs up.’

Other residents argued that 45 parking spaces is not enough to have on a site that hosts 40 dwellings and that the development would worsen traffic at an already busy intersection. 

Another resident expressed doubt that the land on which the development would be built can accommodate 40 dwellings because it abuts wetlands. 

Moving forward with plans to build this development was made possible by the passage of Article 33 during Town Meeting in 2024. That motion called for the town to authorize the Select Board to sell, lease, or dispose of the “land described as ‘Parcel 68-44,’ located on Lowell St. near the northeast corner of North St. and Lowell St., for the purposes of developing 100 [percent] affordable housing.” Approximately 95 percent of Town Meeting members voted in support of the motion. 

Following that affirmative vote, Lexington’s Affordable Housing Trust issued a request for proposals and received seven responses. Carol Kowalski, Lexington’s assistant town manager for development, then assembled a review team to evaluate those proposals. That team interviewed developers on Sept. 16 and shared its recommendation with the Trust during its Sept. 23 meeting. 

Traggorth said Causeway will host more community meetings in the future “to make sure [they] can get everybody’s comments.”