Newton has met its 40B threshold and is confident it can withstand a 40B challenge, Jim Morrison writes on Wicked Local Newton. Here’s two key excerpts…

[Chief Administrative Officer Dori] Zaleznik said the city was very conservative in calculating the numbers and is fully confident it would withstand a legal challenge from a developer. She said that when other communities have claimed to meet the 1.5 percent threshold, they’ve been challenged before the state’s Housing Appeal Committee, but once the determination is upheld, subsequent developers are much less likely to challenge it.

Mayor Setti Warren said meeting the threshold is important for the city, but it doesn’t mean the end of affordable housing developments here. Warren said he plans to create more affordable housing in the city so that by 2021, 10 percent of the housing in Newton is affordable.
“We’re still committed to creating more affordable housing,” Warren said.