MARC DRAISEN
‘Direct incentives’

A new study calls for the state to provide millions of dollars to Massachusetts communities to encourage them to create special zoning districts to build housing closer together and near public transportation, town centers and vacant industrial areas.

Prepared by Northeastern University’s Center for Urban and Policy Research for the Commonwealth Housing Task Force, the report features three key strategies that could lead to the construction of roughly 33,000 new homes, according to the study.

One recommendation calls for the state to provide $2,000 for each new apartment and $3,000 for each new single-family home that’s built within a specially created smart-growth overlay zoning district. The report also recommends that the state pay the entire cost of educating every student who lives in a newly constructed home within the district and that the state redirect funding for roads and sewer to communities that implement the zoning districts.

The report also recommends that the state spend $670 million in over the next 10 years on affordable housing.

To be eligible for the state rewards, communities would have to create zoning districts that make it easier for mixed-used development with apartment buildings of at least 20 units per acre to be built and for eight single-family homes to be built per acre. The districts would also encourage housing development on infill lots and the conversion of commercial, industrial and institutional sites that aren’t used. Each district would require that in all projects of more than 12 units, at least 20 percent of the units would be affordable to households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income.

“We do support the notion of direct incentives to towns and cities to encourage the development of housing,” said Marc Draisen, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. “If we want to encourage communities to build affordable housing, we should put our money where our mouth is.”

‘Important Challenges’

But while Draisen praised the task force’s work, he also expressed concern about the methods suggested to pay for the financial incentives. To make the incentives a reality, however, the task force will have to convince legislators that they will have a minimal impact on dwindling state resources.

The report suggests that the state can offset part of the costs of providing the incentives by selling surplus state property worth about $400 million. In addition, the new housing construction in the overlay district would generate state revenue from the sales and income tax associated with the construction and from the tax revenues created by new economic development – namely, jobs from business expansion attributable to increased housing affordability – according to the report. With those revenues included, the net cost to the state over the next decade will be approximately $110 million, the report estimates.

However, Draisen said it’s difficult for budget writers on Beacon Hill to count on and incorporate projected revenue from economic development and growth into budgets. And Draisen said while he supports the idea of trying to sell the state’s surplus land more quickly, he is worried that a rush to sell the land could lead to inappropriate uses and development of the sites.

“We can’t really support auctioning off all the land that the state owns to the highest bidder, even for a cause so important,” he said. “Cities and towns need to have some control over how state surplus is used.”

Another challenge will be convincing communities that the state will reimburse for costs associated with new housing development. “One of the important challenges is making the [state’s] promise real and believable,” said Draisen.

The proposal received a warm reception from some lawmakers last Thursday when it was presented to the Joint Committee on Housing and Urban Development. Rep. Kevin G. Honan, D-Brighton and the committee cochairman, told the State House News Service that he intends to develop legislation that mirrors the proposed recommendations.

The Commonwealth Housing Task Force – a broad coalition of business leaders, academics, housing advocates and elected officials – worked on the report’s recommendations for the last two years. The task force was created in response to the campaigns in support and opposition of the Community Preservation Act in Boston. In 2001, an effort in Boston to pass the CPA – a measure that would have allowed the city to charge a tax surcharge on annual real estate taxes to pay for affordable housing, historic preservation and open space – failed after the business community lined up against it.

Stephanie Pollack, senior vice president for advocacy and communications at the Conservation Law Foundation and one of several people speaking in support of the report’s recommendations at a press conference last week, said that built-out communities stand to benefit the least from the incentives suggested in the report.

“We need to make sure that we simultaneously address the needs of communities that are already housing and educating our poorest families, many of whom are facing severe displacement pressures as housing costs soar,” said Pollack.

Some communities stand to benefit more from the proposed incentives and not every town will want to participate, agreed Mossik Hacobian, a member of the housing task force and executive director of Urban Edge, a community development corporation based in Roxbury. But Hacobian is optimistic that communities that want to increase their housing supply will be eager to embrace a new tool to help them overcome worrisome growth and cost issues.

The report was released at a press conference at The Boston Foundation’s headquarters that featured business, academic and community leaders who spoke about the importance of increasing the housing supply to temper rising housing costs. Several pointed out that the high housing prices have made it difficult for Bay State companies, hospitals, colleges and universities to attract and retain workers.

Jeanette Ives Erickson, senior vice president for patient care services and chief nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, said many hospital employees live in states like New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island.

“How many of us want nurses driving two-and-a-half hours to come to work at 11 [p.m.]?” she asked.

Recently, the director of Mass. General’s Physical Therapy Department told Erickson that out of 12 job offers the department made during the last three months, eight offers were turned down because the candidates didn’t believe they could afford to live in the Boston area.

“When I read this report, I thought, ‘this is just right,'” Erickson said.

The report was released a day after a Massachusetts Audubon Society study revealed that low-density, large-lot residential development continues to gobble up forest and agricultural land and is leading to greater sprawl. According to that study, homes are being built on larger lots – with lots sizes for new homes increasing 44 percent between 1970 and 2002. About 40 acres of forest, farmland and open space in Massachusetts are being developed every day, according to the study, and nearly nine out of 10 developed acres are being used to build new homes.