Greetings everyone, and don’t forget to set your clocks ahead if you haven’t already. After some quieter weeks, this one is a blockbuster, with three important events clustered together on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, so let’s get right to it. With so much going on, this newsletter will be a little longer than usual, so please bear with us.
Action Item No. 1: Attend the HAB’s Public Hearing on the 2023 Housing Production Plan (via Zoom) at 5:30-7:30 pm on Wednesday, March 15. This will be the first public unveiling of the final draft HPP which was released last week, and which sets a course for Brookline to continue producing the affordable housing we desperately need over the next five years. The full draft (weighing in at 80 pages, plus 40+ pages of appendices) is now posted on the Town’s Housing Production Plan Website. For a shorter summary, you can also see the slide deck presentation to the HAB from its meeting on Nov. 30, 2022. Register here for the public hearing.
Action Item No. 2: And next, at 7:30 the same evening (Wed Mar. 15), Brookline’s Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD) is sponsoring a Community Visioning Kick-off for their Harvard Street Zoning Proposal to comply with the MBTA Communities Act (MBTACA). Brookline for Everyone has been a strong supporter of DPCD’s planning efforts, and we encourage everyone who is able to Zoom in to learn about its detailed study and recommendations for facilitating multifamily and mixed-use development in Brookline. Their key finding is that reinforcing a four-story scale in the base zoning along Harvard Street using a form-based zoning approach would facilitate growth to sustain our commercial districts and reinforce the neighborhood’s physical identity, with the financial benefit of incentivizing ground-floor retail space. The analysis and full study are posted here, and you can use this Zoom link for the meeting (pre-registration is not required). For more background on the Harvard Street Corridor and MBTACA, see B4E’s FAQs here, or for real policy nerds, you can review the detailed March 3, 2023 memo from the Town Administrator and Town Counsel, addressing the question “do we really have to comply with the state law?” Spoiler alert: the answer is an unequivocal YES! Finally, B4E is circulating a petition to encourage the SB and Town Meeting to continue supporting this process as it moves forward; please check out the petition here and, if you agree, add your name now.
Action Item No. 3: And for those who are tired of Zoom and want some real-live action to support housing affordability, attend the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) State House Rally on Thursday, March 16, at 10:00-11:00 am to kick off their 2023 Housing Justice Campaign. You can register here (though it is not required — you can also just show up!), and find more details on this flier and this press release. This is an opportunity to demonstrate public support for GBIO’s housing agenda, including full funding for public housing, implementation of the MBTACA across the state, and passage of the Real Estate Transfer Fee (RETF) enabling legislation — all of which are B4E priorities. If you are able to do a daytime event, please consider this; GBIO rallies are always fun and energizing, and showing our support for statewide action on these priorities is important. Contact GBIO/B4E members Charlie Homer or David Rockwell for more information. And see you there!
Finally, Two Learning Opportunities:
- Homelessness is often a confusing issue, but it doesn’t have to be: it’s really all about housing. Here is a terrific Substack post we read recently by Aaron Carr, the founder and executive director of the non-profit watchdog group Housing Rights Initiative. Check it out: Everything you think you know about homelessness is wrong.
- Mark your calendar and register now (space may be limited) to join us in person at Brookline Booksmith at 6:00 pm on March 27th for a conversation with Katherine Einstein & Maxwell Palmer, authors of Neighborhood Defenders: Participatory Politics and America’s Housing Crisis. Einstein & Palmer, political science professors at Boston University, examine how local land use boards and institutions enlarge the power of entrenched interests and privileged homeowners.
Thanks and have a great week,
Jonathan Klein, on behalf of Brookline for Everyone