Newton has joined a coalition of 14 Boston-area cities and towns have pledged to work together to address the region’s severe housing shortage. The groups goals, according to this story in the Boston Business Journal, include..
- Speed up housing construction
- Create more housing, both renter- and owner-occupied, in a variety of sizes
- Locate housing near transit and in walkable areas;
- Utilize design standards that increase physical accessibility for all ages and abilities;
- Reduce evictions, eliminate unfair rental practices
- Abolish discrimination against both tenants and buyers
- Recognize that housing availability has significant impact on the region’s economic health
The Boston Globe’s story on this agreement is here.
Awesome, I’d love to sell my over-priced drafty old house and buy something new and affordable!
The price driver around metro Boston is often buyers from outside the area moving in, including absentee foreign investors wanting to park their money in American Real Estate. So while building more housing might temporarily temper the price increase, there’s no way to build enough housing to satisfy a global market.
Many cities and towns have agreed to this housing pledge for years now. Trouble is Greater Boston has a weak transit system that can not accomodate rapid growth. With our strong local government structure residents must agree or changes won’t happen. Since I grew up in Toronto, I know from experience that there is no end to new development once politicians force new housing. Today Toronto has 4 million people and can never build sufficient roads and subways to keep up with the growth. Home prices are one third higher than here. Half the population lives in high rise rental apartments. My aunt lived on the 65th story of her Bloor St. apartment which was 70 stories in height. She was close to transit and miles of underground shopping malls. She seldom went for a walk outdoors. When standing on her balcony I could feel the building sway slightly in the wind.
More housing will not lower costs. It will certainly attract more businesses but the present quality of life will be lost.
Increasing the housing stock takes a regional approach. The 14 cities and towns that have formed this housing coalition should not have to go at it alone. Many suburban and exurban communities have put zoning regulations in place that make it nearly impossible to build new homes on undeveloped land. That “anti-sprawl” philosophy, espoused by organizations like the Sierra Club, is putting tremendous housing pressure on fully developed communities [like Newton], which are closer to Boston. Here’s an example…
I own 50 acres of undeveloped, residentially zoned property on the Sharon-Foxboro line. The property can comfortably support 40-50 single family homes, which is what I would like to build there. For years I’ve been battling a zoning provision in Sharon that significantly restricts the length of a new roadway from its closest intersecting road. This zoning regulation has effectively limited me to three houselots on a property that could support 10 times the amount of homes. Why should a city like Newton have to take up the slack when other communities thumb their noses at new housing? [I’m not saying we shouldn’t. I’m just simply asking the question].
I think the answer to Mike’s question is we shouldn’t, but our location makes it hard. Most people these days want to be close to the city and no longer want to commute from far away if they can avoid it. Newton (and Brookline, wellesley etc.) with great location, good schools and high quality of life with great transit are extremely attractive and going to be at the forefront of the pressure for housing. Meanwhile, folks in Sharon/foxboro and beyond, seeing what’s happening here, are probably happy to want to keep the growth here and preserve their small town feel, i.e. still wanting to believe that they are a small town. So it will take a regional effort, but it will be difficult.
We should build. Blocking new development will not preserve the city we know: http://newton.wickedlocal.com/news/20171122/commentary-triple-decker-offers-lesson
@Jon Bassett – I agree. Price estimates of single-family houses in my neighborhood have risen 60% in four years. Change is inevitable. We have to figure out how to make sure that change accommodates young families making less than $150k per year. It won’t be easy.
We should build. It would have been easier with a less NIMBY-enabling Council. C’est la vie.
There is a housing battle brewing in Nonantum – the old Italian Soccer Club on Adams is being torn down for development, eliciting some panic in the neighborhood.