Brookline’s Opportunities

By encouraging a mix of appropriate housing and commercial development across Brookline, especially on underutilized commercial lots near transit we can: increase housing affordability; tackle the climate crisis; support a welcoming and diverse community; ensure Brookline's schools continue to support our students' path towards educational excellence; and forge a creative and robust approach to economic development to help fund the services and community needs vital to all Town residents.

To accomplish these goals, Brookline's zoning and land use policies need to allow more housing and mixed use development by right. Rather than reinforcing our elite status as a wealthy suburb by maintaining our current restrictive zoning codes, we need to make it easier for our underutilized commercial areas to become complete neighborhoods, where a balance of housing, green space and businesses accessible via walking, biking and public transit create a human-scale economy where people of all ages and income levels can flourish.

Brookline continues to explore different zoning options to expedite mixed-use and commercial development on the large parcels identified in the 2005 Comprehensive Plan and the 2023 Housing Production Plan (HPP). The Chestnut Hill Commercial Area Study Committee and the Center Street Lots Committee are exploring those future uses for these important sites. The HPP, developed with robust community engagement, also identifies a number of opportunities for zoning upgrades that would allow Brookline to welcome more neighbors while also growing Town tax revenue.

Brookline for Everyone appreciates the work of the Planning Department, the HAB and the Planning Board to bring our bylaws into compliance with the State ADU regulations. That initiative will help add more smaller, moderate priced units to our housing stock across Brookline’s single family districts (defined by the State ADU regulations as any district that permits single family homes). These new regulations give existing homeowners additional options to meet family needs by downsizing, generating income, or housing aging parents or adult children.

When completed in a year or more, Brookline for Everyone trusts that the Comprehensive Plan will become a useful guide to Brookline’s future land use. But even when completed, Brookline’s history of having shelved much of its 2005 Comprehensive Plan means we cannot predict how long it will take to identify and implement the zoning changes that emerge. The Comprehensive Planning process cannot be an excuse to defer already identified zoning reforms.

As we develop our Vision for our future land use in the Comprehensive Plan, Brookline must continue to address our housing and financial challenges. New development takes years to plan, finance, design, build and permit. Every delay in permitting new mixed use development sets back our responses to the housing crisis and to climate change, inflates the cost of development, and adds years to when the Town realizes new tax revenue. Brookline can, and must, chew gum and walk at the same time.

Brookline for Everyone advocates for policies that prioritize developing livable neighborhoods with safe and affordable homes. Brookline for Everyone believes permitting compact mixed use development near transit actually increases the Town’s ability to preserve the public and private amenities we all share in Brookline, while also allowing all our neighbors, both renters and homeowners, access to healthy, affordable, and climate sustaining homes.