Glen Brook Way in Medway: How the Town's CPA Investment Resulted in 90+ Units of Affordable Housing
Written by Chase Mack
Addressing local affordable housing needs can be an incredibly daunting challenge for Massachusetts communities, even for cities and towns that have adopted the Community Preservation Act. But with each passing year, more communities are proving how patience, planning, and local support from CPA can serve as the catalyst for housing success. In the town of Medway, the Glen Brook Way development is a perfect example of a CPA community banding together to enable amazing housing opportunities for both young families and seniors alike.
The development of Glen Brook Way began in 2017, after Metro West Collaborative Development approached town officials in Medway about redeveloping a vacant site on West Street into new affordable housing. The town’s Housing Production Plan at the time had already identified a significant shortage of low- and moderate-income housing and rental units, so the project quickly gained traction. The Medway Community Preservation Committee provided early financial backing with a grant of $500,000 for Phase 1, and town meeting approved the recommendation that same year. The CPC returned to town meeting again in 2019 after Metro West proposed a second phase for the development that would effectively double the total number of units by adding senior housing components on either side of the initial parcel. Town meeting approved another grant of $1 million in CPA funding, expanding the campus with dozens of affordable senior apartments.
As with many CPA initiatives, this early funding at the local level allowed Medway to leverage millions in additional funding through state and federal grants. After these funds were secured, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in 2020 during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic to celebrate the town's investment into affordable housing. Senate President Karen Spilka and State Representative Jeff Roy both spoke at the event, commending Medway’s willingness to work together to make this housing effort a reality. Glenn Trindale, a member of Medway’s Select Board, provided an excellent perspective on why a development like Glen Brook Way was possible in the first place, and the long road it took to make it this far:
“For 15 or 20 years, people have been out here trying to push for affordable housing, and we struggled – we struggled because we didn’t have the expertise, and the politics in town… But we were able to build consensus around this project to the point where the Board of Selectmen, the Finance Committee, the ZBA, the ConsCom, all the committees that would have to touch a project like this all voted unanimously to support this project. From day one, the whole goal was not about what can we pick out that’s wrong with this, but how do we make this happen, and how to we push to get things done?”
These important goals celebrated at the groundbreaking ceremony were ultimately realized in 2021 after Phase 1 of Glen Brook Way was completed, resulting in 48 new rental apartments for households earning up to 30% and 60% of the areawide median income. 16 units were designed as townhouse apartments, with another 6 units created to be fully handicap accessible. This is especially impressive considering that Metro West CD’s initial proposal to the town in 2017 was for a modest 32-unit development, but due to the overwhelming local support, they were able to expand the overall scope for both phases of construction. The development also benefits from a variety of amenities, including solar rooftop arrays, resident lounges, a playground, energy-efficient appliances, and on-site property management.
Once the initial phase was constructed, Phase 2 would later incorporate an additional 44 units of affordable senior housing, completed in 2024. Glen Brook Way now features two different, integrated housing developments, split between the Family Apartments property and the Senior Apartments property. The end result was a 92-unit intergenerational campus, substantially increasing the availability of affordable units in Medway.
CPA is an invaluable revenue tool for municipalities, but considering the overall costs for housing development today, the reality is that CPA funding is usually not enough to create new housing on its own. Medway invested $1.5 million in direct CPA grants into Glen Brook Way and provided additional CPA funding through the town’s affordable housing trust, but the total cost for both phases of Glen Brook Way came to be over $30 million. However, CPA is a program that was explicitly designed to enable successful projects just like this: it encourages communities to convene different interests towards a common goal, to discuss the best use of vacant land, to facilitate collaboration between multiple committees, to involve town meeting members in the process, and to kickstart fundraising efforts that lead to multi-million dollar housing investments. CPA funding may only be a “drop in the bucket” when it comes to overall housing development budgets, but with every drop that CPA contributes, it inspires communities to envision a better future, and to work towards making that future possible.
