Greetings everyone,
For those who didn’t see our “Special Edition” on Wednesday, let’s repeat the big news: Town Meeting passed meaningful MBTA-CA compliance, including both the “M+ Plan” and the “Harvard Street Rezoning” by the overwhelming margin of 207-33. There has been lots of positive coverage you can review, including in The Boston Globe, Brookline.News, and WBUR.
It’s exciting to see Brookline playing a leadership role, and we hope our work will set a high standard for other cities and towns in the region to adopt meaningful compliance, since we know that the solution to our regional housing shortage requires every municipality to do its part. We want to give a shout out and big THANK YOU to our statewide partner, Abundant Housing Massachusetts (AHMA), which has been a huge supporter of B4E and our work on MBTA-CA compliance, and which has been organizing across Massachusetts for abundant and affordable housing. We encourage everyone to join and support AHMA, and to celebrate with them at their First Annual Celebration of Abundance! on Thursday, November 30th at 7:00 pm at the Lamplighter@CX in Cambridge.
Thankfully, Town Meeting completed its work after just three sessions this week (a record for recent times), and B4E’s other priorities all passed easily, other than one which was withdrawn. You can see the details on our recommendations here. For an overview of the entire Town Meeting, including short summaries of each Warrant Article, the final decision on each, and some useful background and links, we recommend Precinct 5 Town Meeting Member Bonnie Bastien’s “Warrant Article Guide.” Thank you Bonnie for your work to make Town Meeting understandable for your constituents and for making this useful resource available to everyone.
It’s no surprise that there are very few Town meetings this week, but there is an important Zoning Board of Appeals virtual public hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 7:00 pm on a Chapter 40B application to build a 96 residential units in Chestnut Hill on a block bounded by Hammond, Sheafe, and Heath Streets, with 25% of the homes affordable at 80% Area Median Income. The project plans are available on the Brookline Town website here, and you can register for the Zoom meeting here. We haven’t yet reviewed this carefully, but are glad to see an application for a significant housing development in South Brookline, with 24 new affordable homes. We are sure there will be a robust public process, and we will keep you posted as the application moves forward.
What we’re reading this week: We recommended this article by Darrell Owens, Why I Used to Be a NIMBY, for a nuanced understanding of NIMBYism and how to best overcome it.
Preview of coming attractions: CHAPA is holding a forum entitled Zoning for Equity on Wednesday, December 6th, 2023 from 9:30-11:30 am at MetroHousing Boston’s office in Roxbury. This forum will include a high-powered panel to help understand opportunities and limitations of modern zoning, including Amy Dain, researcher and author of the newly released Exclusionary by Design. You can find more details and register here.
Best wishes from all of us at B4E for a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.
Jonathan Klein,
on behalf of Brookline for Everyone