Boston’s suburban office properties often make poor candidates for housing conversion, with their large floorplates and other restrictions, but paradoxically they could offer an excellent opportunity for creating new housing.
If they’re not careful, Gov. Charlie Baker and his hand-picked MBTA general manager could undermine the biggest effort to grow housing production this state has seen in decades.
The spirit of the law is clear: Allow apartments for families near transit. But important details need to be sorted out by the Baker administration that will require flexibility and a watchful eye to prevent poison pills.
Earlier this year, the Housing Choice bill passed with robust support from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and a broad coalition of partners committed to enabling the creation of new housing across the state. Now, we must collectively turn our attention to realizing the opportunity before us.
A range of changes were made when Gov. Charlie Baker signed a series of zoning and land use reforms into law this month – including more than you may realize.
Creating the kinds of interesting neighborhoods and producing the housing needed for growth will require more help for suburban municipalities with resource management of water, wastewater and land-use.
Lexington is taking steps to make life science development more attractive amid rising competition from nearby suburbs and expanding clusters in Boston, Somerville and Watertown.
New zoning reforms that make it easier to secure approval for housing development at the local level could also assist broader efforts to better integrate Massachusetts schools, experts said Tuesday.
Increasing both the number and types of homes available across the state is a key component to ensuring that the state remains inclusive and thriving. A new law offers hope we will be able to do just that.
Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday signed legislation spreading $626 million around the economy over the next five years and making it easier to build new housing, an area where Massachusetts has lagged behind other states, while rejecting tenant protections in the bill.
Piggy-backing on a late-night deal to inject hundreds of millions of dollars into a state economy struggling through the COVID-19 pandemic, the state legislature passed two long-discussed zoning reforms aimed at easing housing development in the state’s suburbs.
Two recent reports brought the need for more housing production in Massachusetts into sharp focus as the state legislature sits on an important reform that could begin to address the problem.
A long-sought Gov. Charlie Baker proposal to lower the voting threshold for local zoning changes remains mired in conference committee with just days to go.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo, a Winthrop Democrat, plans to resign from the legislature after 30 years on Beacon Hill on Tuesday, ending a 12-year run as speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
With just over a week to go until the end of the legislative session, a key piece of zoning reform legislation is still stuck in conference committee as part of a larger economic development bill.
The national examination of our country’s racist past has sparked growing interest and debate over dusty, decades-old zoning rules suburban communities in the Boston area have thrown up over the years to bar construction of apartments and affordable housing.
The withdrawal of AFFH policies at the national level and the stumbling approach to Housing Choice – a good vehicle, if an imperfect one – both limit housing opportunity in favor of the status quo.
Gov. Charlie Baker was preaching to the choir last week when he implored Greater Boston’s business leaders to support his Housing Choice bill. But that doesn’t mean these same executives would be if they got on the phone with their select board members, city councilors and neighbors.
Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy declined to give a preview Thursday of what Gov. Charlie Baker might say next week in his annual address to the legislature, but it would come as no surprise if the governor tried to nudge legislators to act on his housing production bill.
Making predictions can be a lot of fun. And as we head into the first week of 2020, what better time to look ahead?
