Greetings all, and Happy Bastille Day, which commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris on July 14, 1789, a pivotal event at the start of the French Revolution and a symbol of freedom in France and throughout the world. We hope you enjoyed the day.
Town Meetings of Interest This Week
As is typical for the summer, it is a relatively quiet week for Town meetings, with only one of note and one postponement:
The second meeting of the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee Meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 17, 7:00-9:00 PM, in hybrid mode, in Room 103 on the first floor of Town Hall and via Zoom (link here, no registration required). The full agenda (posted here) includes a project overview, then review and feedback on both a “Data/Trends Inventory” and an “Engagement Plan.” We encourage anyone interested to attend and learn more, and to advocate for a plan that addresses Brookline’s (and our region’s) two most critical challenges: achieving real climate sustainability and addressing our extreme housing affordability challenges.
Postponement Notice: the Zoning Board of Appeals Public Hearing we announced last week for this Thursday, July 18, 2024, at 7 pm, on the application by Hancock Village to convert 25 garage parking spaces and a storage area to 16 apartment units, including four new affordable homes, has been postponed to a later date. There will be a short formal meeting to “open” the hearing but no public testimony or public discussion. You can see the project materials here and can send any comments — including letters of support — or questions to Brookline’s Senior Planner Maria Morelli at mmorelli@brooklinema.gov.
For your Calendar: Coming Next Week
The next meeting of the Affordable Housing Overlay District (AHOD) Study Subcommittee will be on Monday, July 22, via Zoom, at 7:30-9:00 pm. The meeting will review the work to date by the Committee’s consultant, RKG Associates, and formulate policy preferences for RKG’s next round of financial analysis. You can find links to RKG’s prior presentations to the Committee, along with all the Committee’s background documentation and work to date, in their AHOD Study Committee Rolling Meeting Agendas and Minutes.
The Community Preservation Act Committee (CPAC) will hold a “Mandatory Meeting” for all organizations interested in submitting an “Community Housing” application for CPA funds on July 23rd at 1:30 PM. You can find more detail about the CPA Committee’s aggressive timeline for this year’s applications here. We encourage anyone interested in applying for CPA funds for an affordable housing development to contact the committee now at cpa@brooklinema.gov to register for the meeting.
Worth Reading. With respect to the many excellent and hard-working planners among us, we recommend this recent NYT opinion piece by Bryan Caplan, a professor at George Mason University: The Best Plan for Housing is to Plan Less. The author, an economist, starts out saying that he is typically hesitant to endorse such sweeping policy claims, but goes on to make a strong case for housing deregulation as a solution to numerous problems. In his words, it is “one big reform that would raise living standards, reduce wealth inequality, increase productivity, raise social mobility, help struggling men without college degrees, clean the planet and raise birth rates. It’s a sweeping reform that Democrats and Republicans, progressives and conservatives could all proudly support.” Give it a read, and let us know what you think at brooklineforeveryone@gmail.com.