Let's set a few baseline facts first... We need millions of new units of housing in America. We need hundreds of thousands of new units in Massachusetts alone. We cannot achieve our housing goals while perpetuating our patterns of sprawling suburban development that we've doubled down on for the better part of the last 70 years. Our unsustainable sprawling development patterns stretch municipal budgets to the extreme running services like police, fire, water, sewer, maintenance and plowing to homes on large lots further and further away from town centers. By placing people further away from walkable amenities, jobs and transit access, sprawl forces more drivers onto already crammed regional road networks, perpetuating growing congestion issues. Chuck Marohn, the founder of Strong Towns, has even written extensively about the extensive negative impacts of sprawl on our communities, even referring to sprawl as a 'ponzi scheme' one who's bill is finally coming due.
So what's the solution? Well, I've written a bit about this recently, including in a spring Commonwealth Beacon article, but we should be heavily incentivizing new housing production in existing, walkable, transit accessible, developed areas. When you think infill development, think downtowns, main streets, commercial centers, places that already have amenities like parks, shops, restaurants and public transit with easy connection to existing water and sewer systems.
The benefits that come from infill housing development are immense, from decreasing traffic through trip elimination to boosting social connectivity and supporting a thriving local economy, putting opportunities to support local commerce literally right outside their front doors. But today's zoning codes and permitting processes tend to heavily disincentivize this type of growth by making it the path of most resistance. I wrote recently about the importance of small developers to our bigger housing goals and our need to do more to support them. On smaller infill lots, typically projects built by smaller developers, the hurdles and barriers put in place, in an already difficult and risky endeavor, will make it a bridge too far for many smaller developers.
Our Policies Disincentivize Infill Housing Development
Since the 1980s, each recurring recession has wiped out a good chunk of generation of small infill housing developers, as more try and get into this industry they run up against unfriendly capital markets that shy away from small development (see great article from Coby Lefko on this subject) and increasingly more burdensome local zoning codes AND permitting processes that place high levels of uncertainty and cost in the way of new housing production.
On Boston's North Shore, the City of Beverly has been one of the stronger communities seeing a decade of new housing production that has brought 1,400 new units on the market in just the past 10 years. While they've done a lot to make it easier to build in the City, it's also an example of every community in the region needing to do more, even those seen as 'shining stars' of our region. The owner of The Pickled Onion, a family owned restaurant that had been in it's current location for 70-years proposed a new building to replace the aging structure. They wanted to also add 8-units of housing upstairs, adding needed new infill housing to this walkable, transit oriented site. This should have been seen as a win for all. New facility for a local institution, new housing to support the regions needs and a local small business owner would get to build wealth in the community.
Not so fast... despite having operated in this space for 70-years without parking, the proposal triggered the City's current zoning which would require they provide 18-units of parking for the restaurant, in addition to the spaces for each unit required by local zoning. Givin the lots small footprint, and the costs of building below grade parking, this project won't happen. By nearly ever metric imaginable we, as a Commonwealth, should bend over backwards to ensure this type of development, by a local small business owner, can easily occur in communities everywhere. Instead, 8 families will now be pushed further away from transit, and walkability into our unsustainable sprawl.
In nearby Salem, Massachusetts, an 18-unit, mixed-use building had been proposed for an infill site in Downtown, a short walk to the Commuter Rail Station. Current parking mandates required 1.5 spaces per unit making it challenging to fit this project on the existing site. To solve for some of the spatial issues, spots would be purchased on nearby surface parking lots and deeded back to this building, something that not only encumbers these lots for future infill development but goes against seemingly everything the City is hoping to achieve around climate, mobility and housing. The developer, with Planning Boards written recommendation, was able to obtain a parking variance on the site and ended up adding 2 units to the project. That's 2 additional walkable homes. Two additional families able to call the Downtown community home, support local business and add to the community.
Our Decisions Perpetuate Sprawl
When we make it more difficult to build infill housing, we push the little housing we're able to build into 'greenfields' and in parts of the region where there's less access to reliable public transit and easily walkable amenities. With the perpetuation of our sprawling development patterns, we all spend more time on already congested roads, pushing residents further from economic opportunities and making it more difficult to support a thriving small business community and build local social connections.
Our policies and processes make it exceedingly difficult, costly and risky to build on these infill sites perpetuating our region's unsustainable, inequitable and harmful sprawl. We push families into sprawl by developing needed new multi-family housing based on the 'path of least resistance,' oftentimes away from the centers of town, in areas not walkable to anything or conducive to a great quality of life for the residents.
Make It Easier To Build In Massachusetts' 'Walkable Nodes'
In Massachusetts, we're blessed with the vestiges of 'streetcar suburbs' and traditional main streets and downtowns. But we need to shift the incentives. To make it easier to build in places, like Downtown Beverly and Salem above, by doing everything in our power to streamline zoning and permitting processes in those walkable, transit oriented nodes.
Thanks to a new app called "Close.city" we can find exactly where those walkable areas are in Massachusetts and begin to better strategize how we break down the barriers to infill housing production like we saw above in Beverly and Salem on the state level.
We have a decision to make. We can double down on failed planning and zoning policies of the past 70-years, exacerbate our housing crisis, continue to degrade our environment and our communities OR we can chart a new path, one that supports walkable housing, builds community, supports small business, provides the variety of housing types residents of our communities need and ensures we can continue to prosper for generations to come.
Jonathan Berk is an urbanist and advocate who’s focused his career on building and advocating for walkable communities with vibrant public spaces, abundant housing choices and robust local small business communities. As the Founder of Re:Main, he's working to accelerate the growth and expansion of walkable neighborhoods, with abundant housing options, through innovative, action-oriented programs.
Comments