Jonathan Berk
Members of Gov. Maura Healey’s Unlocking Housing Production Commission recently recommended a suite of smart housing policy reforms to respond to our crippling housing crisis: removing minimum parking requirements, revising minimum lot sizes, permitting modest densities such as duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes on all residential lots, and investigating new building types like single-stair apartment buildings.
But while Massachusetts legislators prepare to debate a small fraction of these reforms during this legislative session, states across the country are busy implementing many of them.
In the last six months alone, legislatures in states as politically diverse as Texas, California, Montana, Maine and New Hampshire have passed far-reaching housing reforms that are reshaping their local housing markets, many of them to identical to the recommendations in the Unlocking Housing Production report.
Big Reforms in Red and Blue States
Texas introduced major housing reforms to boost supply and reduce costs.
Senate Bill 15 lowered minimum lot sizes to 3,000 square feet in urban areas, promoting denser, affordable housing.
Senate Bill 840 permitted residential development in commercial zones without rezoning, facilitating the conversion of underused commercial properties into housing and mixed-use developments.
House Bill 24 limited neighbors’ power to block zoning changes by raising the protest threshold and allowing changes with a simple majority.
And the city of Dallas removed minimum parking requirements for most residential projects under 200 units.
Montana has likewise emerged as a national leader on housing reform with a new wave of pro-housing bills passed by its Republican-controlled legislature. House Bill 492, enacted earlier this year, exempts homes smaller than 1,200 square feet from local parking requirements in the state’s 10 largest cities.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom just signed a dramatic reform to one of the state’s most significant barriers to housing construction: the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. Abuse of this law added up to a year’s delay, and millions of dollars, to new housing developments.
New England Success Stories
Even in the Northeast, where zoning changes are typically approached with caution, states are advancing reforms.
Vermont and Maine now permit up to four housing units on any lot with water and sewer access across each state.
The Main legislature also restricted minimum parking requirements statewide to 1 space per unit and minimum lot sizes to 5,000 square feet in “designated growth areas.”
In New Hampshire, the state legislature passed SB 631 with bipartisan backing, allowing multifamily housing by right in commercial zones, acknowledging that many underused commercial areas are ideal for new housing development.
The New Hampshire House of Representatives also passed a bill restricting parking minimums to one space per unit statewide. The chair of the Housing Committee, Republican Rep. Joe Alexander, said, “the majority of the committee believes […] property owners are the best decision-makers when it comes to how much parking is necessary for their property.”
We Have the Data, We Lack the Urgency
Massachusetts is progressing slowly compared to other states. While Montana and Texas legalized single-stair apartment buildings up to six floors this legislative session, our Legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing only held a hearing last month on H.1542, a bill to establish a commission to merely study the idea.
This disparity in speed and ambition is significant.
Housing costs in Massachusetts keep climbing to among the highest in the United States, while the creation of new homes – especially those close to jobs, transit and amenities – continues to fall far short of demand.
We don’t lack good ideas, but rather a lack of urgency to enact reforms that, while appearing drastic to some locally, are embraced by both Democrats and Republicans in states across America.
We Risk Being Left Behind
The MBTA Communities Act, passed in 2020, represented a major step forward in zoning reform after many years of inaction. Yet, nearly five years later, numerous communities have made minimal changes, aiming to meet the law’s requirements without actually facilitating new housing – a practice known as “paper compliance.”
Since then, the Unlocking Housing Production Commission crafted a well-researched plan with recommendations similar to what’s succeeded in other states.
However, without significant legislative action and a renewed sense of urgency, this plan risks becoming just another report gathering dust as the housing crisis deepens.
As other states forge ahead with innovative solutions that will boost affordability for their workers and businesses, we risk being left behind, exacerbating the economic, environmental and equity challenges we face and hurting our economic competitiveness.
Our “business as usual” approach to housing cannot continue. The scale of our pressing housing shortage demands immediate and decisive action that prioritizes housing availability and affordability. Our friends, families, and neighbors depend on us to build the commonwealth we all deserve.
Jonathan Berk is the founder of the real estate and placemaking consultancy re:MAIN and the board chair of Abundant Housing Massachusetts.
