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Greater Boston communities’ drawn-out land-use permitting inhibits development and further drives up some of the nation’s highest apartment rents and home prices, according to an analysis by The Pioneer Institute.
Housing project reviews exceed nine months in the region, higher than all but 11 of the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S., the public policy institute reports. The report focuses on required special permits for housing developments in many communities, adding time and money for developers and giving local boards the discretion to deny projects.
“Such authorizations are frequently rejected for a whole litany of reasons that are hard to predict,” Pioneer Institute Senior Fellow Andrew Mikula writes in the report.
The institute called for expansion of by-right approval of multifamily housing, citing as an example Everett’s Commercial Triangle district which has approved more than 2,000 housing units in recent years on former industrial parcels.
It also recommends elimination of minimum parking requirements, reduction of minimum lot sizes and legalizing small apartment and condominium buildings in single-family zones.
Already the sixth priciest metro area in the U.S. for housing, according to Zillow data, Greater Boston’s housing prices are still rising faster than 36 of the top 50 markets.
The MBTA Communities law, enacted in 2021, was designed to remove discretionary reviews by local land-use boards of housing developments. The law requires 177 communities to approve zoning districts allowing multifamily projects by-right.
But some communities have complied by rezoning areas already occupied by apartment and condo complexes, with the goal of minimizing new development, or rezoned areas with other development constraints.
Boston is seeking to eliminate the need for developers to seek zoning variances for many housing projects through its Squares + Streets zoning initiative.
Many communities still require special permits and lengthy reviews, the Pioneer Institute report noted, citing a study of building permit approvals between 1996 and 2016.
In contrast, some states give developers more leverage to gain speedy approvals. Minnesota has a 60-day deadline to issue or deny building permits, subdivisions and variances. And Texas allows developers to appeal to a third party if the local agency doesn’t take action on an application within 15 days.
The Pioneer Institute report follows a pair of recent studies that spotlight Massachusetts’ missed opportunities for housing production, and blamed onerous state and local regulations.
A Boston Foundation study recommended an overhaul of Chapter 30B, the state’s public procurement law, to make it easier to sell surplus public properties to developers for housing.
And in a report issued last month, MassInc. said vacant and blighted properties in the economically struggling Gateway Cities could create 83,000 housing units over the next decade.
