DESPITE BEING a waterfront city of over 100,000 people, much of Lynn’s coastline has been inaccessible to residents for decades due to environmental hazards. But thanks to a new park, residents can now enjoy a view of Lynn Harbor that had been obstructed by garbage for decades.

The Lynn Harbor Park finally opened to the public in July after a years-long environmental remediation effort. Spanning 22 acres, the park sits on a failed municipal land-fill – once a plant that used coal to produce gas for lighting, heating, and cooking – that was close to collapsing and releasing waste into the sea. The lot had been vacant for 40 years.

The project – led by Charter Development in collaboration with the city and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs – created long-desired green space along the scenic waterfront in an area of Lynn once considered untouchable.

“Our hypothesis was that if we resolve the environmental liabilities at the core, that that would create confidence, and it would create action that would then attract follow-on investment,” Charter’s founder and president Robert Delhome said in an interview.

The waterfront is one of Lynn’s major attractions and its development has been a key part of the North Shore city’s ongoing growth and economic revitalization plans. As the Harbor Park project neared completion, investors came flocking to the South Harbor. But affordable housing advocates in Lynn have raised concerns about the kind of development the park has attracted.

Since the project’s start, two major waterfront housing developments have been established on abutting parcels of land – one of which is the largest private investment in the city’s history.

Samuels & Associates is planning to build 850 units of much-needed housing and 26,000 square feet of commercial space for restaurant and retail use on the South Harbor site at 830 Lynnway. It will also include an eight-acre public park and promenade. Crews are expected to break ground next summer, according to Mayor Jared Nicholson’s office.

The Lynn City Council approved a $45 million, 20-year tax break for the Boston-based developers at the end of 2023. Samuels & Associates agreed to designate 10 percent of the units affordable for residents making 60 percent or less of the area median income (AMI). But local advocacy groups like Neighbor to Neighbor and Lynn United for Change raised concerns about the 900,000-square-foot project’s level of affordability.

As of 2025, the 60 percent AMI limit – a measure set by the federal government and used by housing programs to determine eligibility for deed-restricted affordable housing – for a family of four in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy Metropolitan area, which includes Lynn, is just over $99,000. Lynn’s median homeowner household income of $85,892 is more than double the median renter household income of $34,096.

But Gabe Cohen-Glinick, an organizer from the Lynn chapter of Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts, a social and economic justice group, said 85 out of 850 units isn’t nearly enough to address the need for affordable housing.

In addition to the 850-unit development, new construction at the former Lynnway Mart Indoor Mall and Flea Market property began in 2022, where 550 “luxury” apartment units have been built on the South Harbor waterfront by Connecticut developer Post Road Residential. “The Shipwright” began leasing this year, and one-bedroom units start at $2,525 per month.

Local housing activists have compared the development of South Harbor to the technology-driven redevelopment of Boston’s wealthy Seaport District, which has resulted in a mostly high-income, white neighborhood on a previously underutilized waterfront.

“The vision for the South Harbor feels to us somewhat similar to the nature of Seaport, which is pretty exclusively for mostly young, single adults who are making a high amount of income to live there,” Cohen-Glinick said. “Sort of to create this more trendy, hip, younger, sleek, chic area of development.”

There is less than one deed-restricted affordable housing unit for every four eligible households in Lynn, according to a 2021 Metropolitan Area Planning Council housing report titled “Housing Lynn: A Plan for Inclusive Growth.” At that time, the city needed 15,405 more affordable housing units just to meet the needs of current residents.

The report also established that nearly half of Lynn’s residents were at risk of being priced out of the city, with 42 percent of households qualifying as housing cost burdened, meaning that they spend over 30 percent of their income on housing.

But the MassINC Policy Center’s 2024 Gateway Cities Housing Monitor report found little evidence to support fears that extensive gentrification is taking place in Gateway Cities from newcomers driven out of high-cost Boston. Apart from Everett, Malden, and Revere, the report found that those moving into Gateway Cities – largely driven by immigration – have lower incomes than those already there.

The city is expected to receive approximately $120 million in taxes over the next 30 years from the 850-unit development. The property currently generates $60,000 in property tax revenue per year.

“There’s an urgency around meeting the housing crisis that doesn’t feel as much of a priority as bringing in development money,” Cohen-Glinick said. “The city needs more money. It’s great to have a park. At the same time, the most pressing thing, if you talk to 99 percent of Lynn renters, is not enough affordable housing.”

Mayor Nicholson said making the growth on the waterfront inclusive has been a top priority for the city, and that the 10 percent affordability is consistent with the city’s expectations for the contribution of private projects to affordable housing inventory. Private projects can only bear so much affordability until the project is no longer financially feasible.

“This project will provide much-needed housing, including affordable housing, good jobs targeted to Lynn residents,” Nicholson said in a statement. “The affordable units will have a preference for Lynn residents, and the public park and retail space will make this site into a destination for any Lynn resident, which is critical to making sure growth on the waterfront benefits our community.”

He added that there are several other 100 percent affordable, publicly funded projects in the works. In 2022, the city of Lynn created an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that has helped to create and preserve affordable developments. Cohen-Glinick argues that while helpful, these projects are slow and limited.

Charter Development has completed over 50 landfill remediation projects over the last 30 years, according to Delhome. Their brownfield redevelopment expertise helped them tackle the problems at the site, which had seen development stalled for decades. Coal tar contaminants – remnants of the gas plant – were among the hardest to remediate, and capping and covering the failed landfill required a large volume of regulated soils and sediments to be imported.

“The Harbor Park helped to catalyze almost a billion dollars’ worth of investment on the waterfront, while still creating green space for the residents that are already there,” Delhome said.