Please join us for our first quarterly Brookline for Everyone Happy Hour on 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!
Town Meeting Wrap Up
Brookline’s Spring Town Meeting wrapped up last week after only three evenings, a recent record for efficiency. All four of B4E’s endorsed Warrant Articles passed, including Article 11, which approved $7,931,765 in allocations from the Community Preservation Act (including $6,441,535 for five critical community housing projects); Article 12, a modest expansion of the Senior Tax Work Off program; Article 13, a B4E priority which updates our zoning by-law on Accessory Dwelling Units to make it more useful and to encourage creation of more ADUs townwide; and Article 14, which updates our zoning by-law to make it easier to install heat pumps and EV chargers, lowering barriers to electrifying our town. For more background on these issues, you can read our detailed explanations here. Thank you for your support for B4E’s priorities and all your outreach to your Town Meeting Members.
Abundant Housing Massachusetts Lobby Day a Success
Also last week, Abundant Housing Massachusetts (AHMA) held their first ever lobby day on Wednesday, May 29th at the State House to support the Governor’s Affordable Homes Act, which includes money for subsidized housing across the state (both new homes and crucial funding for repairs and renovations for current low income housing), funding for many housing initiatives, the legalization of Accessory Dwelling Units across the state, a local option Real Estate Transfer Fee, and more. Brookline for Everyone was well represented, with over ten of us at the rally on the State House steps to hear Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities Ed Augustus, Brookline for Racial Justice and Equity Executive Director Raul Fernandez, and others. After the rally, we went inside to meet with Representatives Tommy Vitolo & Kevin Honan and Senator Cynthia Creem. Thanks to everyone who participated! (Pictured below at the rally are B4E Board members Jonathan Klein, Amanda Zimmerman, Jeff Wachter, and former Board member Lisa Shatz.)
Town Meetings and Events of Note This Week
It’s a relatively quiet week, as the Town catches its breath after Town Meeting and all the preparations, but there are two important meetings we are following and recommend for anyone interested. (Also, note that the Affordable Housing Overlay District (AHOD) Study Subcommittee Meeting originally scheduled for June 3 has been canceled and will be rescheduled.)
- The Chestnut Hill Commercial Area Study Advisory Group has its third meeting on Monday, June 3 at 6:00-7:30 pm via Zoom (click here to register, and here for the full agenda). They’ll be reviewing next steps in the project timeline, a debrief on the May 13 Market analysis presentation, and a presentation from the consultants on possible land use scenarios. This is an important initiative with potential to expand Brookline’s commercial tax base and includes the opportunity for new mixed-use development including multifamily housing. The Planning Department will also be continuing its “weekly office hours” for questions and discussion about this planning effort this Thursday, June 6, at 12:00-1:00 pm. Register for the Zoom sessions here.
- The Housing Advisory Board will have its regular meeting Wednesday, June 5th at 5:30-7:30 pm via Zoom. The full agenda includes a preliminary presentation on a potential significant 40B project on Pleasant Street and a report and possible vote on the “Nexus Study” on the possible implementation of a commercial “linkage fee” (similar to ones already in place in Boston, Cambridge, and other nearby communities) to provide additional funding for our Affordable Housing Trust. Due to technical issues, the Zoom link and detailed agenda were not posted as our publication time, but we expect it to be up on the Town Calendar sometime on Monday.
- Join B4E Board Member and Brookline CDC President Deborah Brown at the Mothers Out Front (MOF) Climate Action Call on Thursday, June 6th from 10:00-10:30 am to learn about “Greening Affordable Housing.” Deborah will speak about the BCDC’s progress on decarbonization. The MOF Action Calls are 30 minutes long and focus on a single topic about which attendees learn from an expert speaker. Attendees are then invited to spread the word by posting on social media, writing to neighbors, or reaching out to legislators. These “actions” are done within the 30 minute call. RSVP here.
What We’re Reading this Week. We recommend this article, A unique zoning policy creates financial certainty, affordable housing developers say, which explains how the Affordable Housing Overlay District (AHOD) in Cambridge has been important for low income housing developers, and why Cambridge added more density and decreased setbacks in their AHOD a couple years after they passed it originally. Understanding Cambridge’s experience will be important as Brookline considers its own AHOD, currently being studied by a subcommittee of the HAB.