Hello all. With the Spring Annual Town Meeting in the rear-view mirror, the town housing agenda shifts to two very important fronts – the Select Board and Planning Department’s development of a MBTA Communities Act (MBTA-CA) zoning proposal that will meaningfully comply with the law and the ongoing discussion with the Community Preservation Act Committee on how to allocate new tax funds to support housing, historic preservation, and open space/recreation.
MBTA Communities Act compliance has been challenging to follow, with multiple threads moving simultaneously, so we wanted to provide an update and a heads-up that we’ll be asking for your help over the next couple months. The action currently sits in two places: the original process outlined by the Planning Department, with the continued support of the Select Board, to work with an outside consultant to engage the community to flesh out a Form Based Zoning proposal to streamline housing production primarily on Harvard Street; and a committee established in response to opponents of rezoning Harvard Street, the MBTA-CA Multifamily Permitting Committee, tasked with exploring alternative options for compliance, with at least one option that would incentivize 699 net new units.
The Planning Department, with the support of Form Based Code consultant Opticos Design, has been embarking on a substantial public engagement process, with 40+ presentations/community group meetings; 15 hours of site walks; ~200 responses to pre-workshop survey (thank you for completing!); and more. This work continues through mid-July, with upcoming workshops. Full details of the process can be found on the Town “Multifamily MBTA” site. We’ll be sure to let people know once upcoming workshops are scheduled.
The MBTA-CA Multifamily Permitting Committee has been searching for potential solutions to comply with the state guidelines in a way that minimally touches Harvard Street, but has yet been unable to identify alternatives that meaningfully comply with the MBTA-CA guidelines (read a letter from Brookline’s chapter of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization on this topic here). The committee’s work is not done and they continue to discuss ways to legalize additional housing in many of Brookline’s transit- and retail-accessible neighborhoods.
We hope that the Select Board will focus their limited time and attention on the stellar work of our Planning Department and ultimately bring a zoning proposal to Town Meeting in November that will meaningfully comply with the MBTA-CA while simultaneously energizing and enhancing the vibrancy of our neighborhoods and mixed-use/commercial districts along Harvard Street.
We know this is a lot to follow, it’s a lot for us as well. We’re currently working through key dates and upcoming actions, and will be reaching out again with more specific ways you can help Brookline be the shining example of successful MBTA-CA compliance we want to be. Stay tuned for updates as we have them, but please reach out if you want to dive headfirst with us into the details.
While the Community Preservation Act Committee’s work is slightly less time sensitive than the MBTA-CA efforts, it is nevertheless a potentially crucial element of Brookline’s future housing agenda. This week’s meeting, Monday June 12th at 6:30pm via Zoom (register here), includes what’s sure to be an excellent presentation on “Community Housing Priorities.” Jenny Raitt (CPA Committee member, Housing Advisory Board member, and Executive Director of Northern Middlesex Council of Governments) will be leading this discussion including a review of housing priorities identified by the recent Housing Production Plan process and identifying goals for CPA funding in the Community Housing category. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the “Community Charrette” last Monday, and for all of your continued engagement with this process.
Other Great Housing Activities this Week
Brookline Mothers Out Front hosts a weekly Climate Action Call on Thursday mornings at 10am, and this week’s topic is focused on housing. From their blurb:
This week, we will welcome State Representative Tommy Vitolo to join with BMOF members Diane Sokal and Cora Weissbourd to explain the MBTA Communities Act and the goals of increasing housing availability and affordability in the Commonwealth. Learn how development of new housing can be a climate solution, and how to stay current with proposals for the Town of Brookline.
We encourage anyone who is able to attend this week’s session, and mark each week to learn more about how you can do your part to take meaningful climate action. Click here to register and receive the Zoom link via email.
The Massachusetts Housing Partnership will be hosting their annual Housing Institute this week, Wednesday June 14 and Thursday June 15. The June 14 sessions are virtual (and free!). We want to highlight 2 sessions on Wednesday, in particular. At 9:10am Lily Linke of CHAPA will be hosting a session titled Beyond the Usual Suspects: Eliminating Barriers to Participation for Community Engagement and at 10:30am the always insightful Jenny Schuetz, Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro, is the key speaker during a session titled A Housing Forward Agenda for Massachusetts. Click here for more information and to register.
Recommended Reading: The Urban Institute released a new research report titled Bringing Zoning into Focus: A Fine-Grained Analysis of Zoning’s Relationship to Housing Affordability, Income Distributions, and Segregation in Connecticut by Yonah Freemark, Lydia Lo, and Sara C Bronin. The summary page and the full report can be found here. At a high level, their research shows that exclusionary zoning that restricts the construction of multifamily housing correlates with more racially & economically segregated communities. From the authors: “[o]ur results clearly point to the links between zoning laws, rental housing availability, and inequitable distributions of populations within and across jurisdictions. Policymakers considering how to improve access to opportunity while reducing income or racial segregation should evaluate the potential for altering local zoning codes to allow greater diversity of housing construction and tenure types in more places.”
Thanks and have a great week,
Jeff Wachter, on behalf of Brookline for Everyone