First up this week, PLEASE JOIN US for our inaugural Brookline for Everyone Happy Hour this Monday, June 10th, from 5:30-7:30 pm at Grainne O’Malley’s Tavern, 201 Harvard Street. We’ll relax together, clink a few glasses, and catch up after a busy and successful Town Election and Town Meeting. It’s a chance to meet new and old friends, and just schmooze. If you can make it, please register here so we have an idea of how many to expect, but even if you don’t register, feel free to stop by!
ACTION ALERT: Affordable Homes Act and Housing Bond Bill Pass House, but Action Needed to include Real Estate Transfer Fee in Senate Version
Governor Healey’s Affordable Homes Act and Housing Bond Bill was adopted by the State House, and included many terrific provisions, including significant additional capital for public housing and authorization for Accessory Dwelling Units statewide. Unfortunately, the House bill did NOT include the Real Estate Transfer Fee (see this Globe Article on how it was killed by real estate interests), but there is still an opportunity to make sure it is included in the Senate version. Action Item: Send a short email now to Senator Cynthia Creem (who represents Brookline and Newton), cynthia.creem@masenate.gov, or call her office at 617-722-1639. In your note or call, urge her to support inclusion of the RETF in the Senate’s version of the Affordable Homes Act. Senator Creem has been generally supportive of the RETF in the past, so now we need her to use her influence as Majority Leader to make sure that this crucial provision is included in the final legislation. If this becomes law, Brookline could adopt a RETF that could raise between $7 and $14 million each year by charging a 1-2% fee on the amount of each real estate sale, excluding the first $1 million. That amount dwarfs what we raise for our Affordable Housing Trust (which currently has only about $3 million in unencumbered funds) and from the Community Preservation Act (which raises about $3 million a year to be split among historic preservation, open space and recreation, and community housing). For more information, here is a link to a useful source sheet from the Local Option for Housing Affordability Coalition.
Town Meetings and Events of Note This Week
- The Community Preservation Act Committee will be meeting on Monday, June 12, at 6:30-8:00 pm via Zoom (link here; no pre registration required) to debrief on their past year’s work — which led to Town Meeting’s adoption of 100% of their recommendations — and begin planning for next year’s grant cycle. You can find the full agenda here.
- The Planning Department will be continuing its “weekly office hours” for questions and discussion about Chestnut Hill Commercial Area Study on Thursday, June 13, at 12:00-1:00 pm. The final session will be next week, June 20. Register for the Zoom session here.
Preview of Coming Attractions
- The Economic Development Advisory Board will hold an open workshop on the Chestnut Hill Commercial Area Study on Monday, June 17th, at Town Hall from 7:00-9:00 PM.
- The Newton Fair Housing Committee is planning virtual training on Fair Housing called “Guidance for Policy Leaders” on Tuesday, June 18, 2024 4:00-5:30 pm. The event includes a presentation by Attorney Henry Korman, a leading national expert in Fair Housing at the law firm of Klein Hornig LLP. We think this will be equally applicable to Brookline and other municipalities, and encourage those who have time and interest to attend. Zoom link here, no pre-registration required.
What We’re Reading This week, we recommend you take a look at this recent blog post by Hamilton Nolan titled Housing Is The Economy, arguing that, for the economy to work, we need to address the huge housing shortage we have created over the past decades through restrictive zoning. Here is a short excerpt: “On the national level, because it’s hard to produce overnight results on this issue, politicians need to make a point of educating the public on how this all works, as they push the policies that will make it happen. Donald Trump is the ultimate NIMBY, the bloated idiot who screams about ‘Protecting Our Suburbs’ while promising to give the very same wealthy homeowners who caused this problem more power to continue perpetuating it. If you despise Donald Trump, yet find yourself on the same side as him when it comes to the question of whether people should be allowed to build new apartment buildings in your neighborhood, you need to reconsider your understanding of this issue.”