Boston and a handful of inner suburbs have played an outsized role in Massachusetts’ recent multifamily housing production. What happens if multifamily developers can’t bid enough to acquire urban development sites in the first place?
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.
A central, troubling theme emerges from the Dain report on Greater Boston multifamily land use policies: Land use decisions and plans in many towns and cities have a tenuous relationship with reality.
A landmark report that, for the first time surveyed the 100 cities and towns surrounding Boston, details the many ways municipalities attempt to block or restrict multifamily housing.
No one has a comprehensive grasp of what rules apply to multifamily construction where and what the results have been. That’s about to change with the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance’s new study.
Cambridge is considering a bold step designed to boost its affordable housing inventory: allow developers to build taller buildings anywhere in the city if they agree to build only 100 percent income-restricted units.
Last week’s groundbreaking at St. James Place, three blocks from the MBTA’s Porter subway and commuter rail station in Cambridge, is a “feel good” real estate story: a car wash and parking lot replaced by an attractive mixed-use development
It’s nearly impossible these days to get approval for even the humble in-law apartment thanks to the housing snobs who call the shots in too many Boston-area suburbs and towns.
You have to hand it to them: Supporters of the “Great Neighborhoods” campaign on Beacon Hill certainly picked a snazzy name for their proposal to reform the messed-up Massachusetts housing market. But the recipe for residential bliss by the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance was recently stripped of a key ingredient: rental housing.
