Boston is a world-class city with strong economic fundamentals that is now enjoying robust growth. But there is a housing crisis here, and we need to look at many different tools to fix the problem. Maybe it’s finally time to stop building one zoning decision at a time.
With lawmakers on Beacon Hill once again dithering over the state budget and, having blown a deadline weeks ago with the arrival of the new fiscal year, things certainly aren’t looking great for zoning reform legislation. But some are optimistic a turning point is near.
Last week, Google announced to some acclaim it would spend $1 billion to build 15,000 market-rate and 5,000 affordable homes in the housing-starved San Francisco Bay area. Before any like-minded Massachusetts actors get a similar idea, we suggest a better use of that money would be helping efforts to modernize our mass transit and suburban zoning laws.
