For cities and towns in Massachusetts, increasing density requires outreach, reaps benefits – BU News Service

By Lillian EdenBU News Service

BOSTON The combination of constantly rising housing costs, trafficcongestion and inadequate public transit options has prompted planners toconsider new options in how to create developments that combine more affordablehousing with amenities designed to allow people to live, work and play inwalkable communities.

Just about everyone agrees metropolitan Boston has a housing crisis, wrote Amy Dain, a research associate at MassINC in a 2019 study commissioned by the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance.

Although the study was done in and around Boston, housing is a problem being addressed in some western Massachusetts communities too.

I think that theres been a growing movement across greater Boston toallow more housing. And some of this comes from a growing acknowledgement thatwhen we restrict supply of housing that causes price escalation, Dain said.

Theres also an increasing push for home, work and play to be within walksheds, meaning things, like schools, libraries or cafes are located close enough for people to walk to them. In recent years the city of Boston installed maps with walking time estimates for various points of interest.

One way to add density and increasing walkability is by requiring orallowing mixed-use development. One example is a building with businesses onstreet level and residential space above it. A single, mixed-use property canprovide both commercial and residential tax revenue, which is an incentive tocities.

Theres been a concerted effort in the last 20 years for cities andtowns to adopt mixed-use zoning, Dain said, adding this would not be a returnto a century ago, when there was no zoning, and towns and cities could mix usesanywhere.

The new zoning isnt really just about a free market return, its about requiring that there be first-floor retail or commercial in residential buildings, she said. The requirement makes developers consider adding a retail space from the beginning, even if thats not what they normally would have done with the space without the requirement.

Increased walkability isnt the only benefit of mixed use and higherdensity developments.

Mixed use is ideal just because you have the synergy between the commercial uses and the residential. And I think the more kind of residential units we can create in our business district just helps to promote the local businesses, said Denise Gaffey, director and city planner in the Melrose Office of Planning and Community Development.

Although mixed-use is generally considered favorable, it depends on theuse, she said. Not all businesses are created equal, so a community has to bemindful of what would be a good fit for the retail space, and factor in thingssuch as parking availability, which can make a business more viable and thetype of business, she said.

The city wouldnt consider putting in, for example, a business with adrive-through in an extremely residential area.

The neighbors say they want some retail, but I think it would really depend on the retail, right? she asked. I think they like the idea of a mom and pop coffee shop that they could just walk to, but, if it was, like, a Dunkin Donuts, they probably wouldnt be so excited about it because they would consider that as bringing a lot of traffic.

Melrose, a small city north of Boston with almost 30,000 residents, haslong had a history of mixed-use, high density and transit-oriented development,Gaffey explained.

Although adding the first mixed-use development in the town was ayears-long process launched in the early 2000s, there were a few things goingin the projects favor: the area being developed was underused and Melrose dida lot of community engagement every step of the way, Gaffey said.

The location was a key part of it, too. The city is about a quarter-mile from the end of the Orange Line, and there are multiple commuter rail stops within city limits. Building housing at a higher density allows more people to take advantage of public transportation.

Once that project got built, and everyone saw how great it was, I think that helped us a lot, she said. Its really been a successful project. And it is the poster child for transit-oriented growth because its right at the Orange Line.

The success of that first project opened the door for other similar projects, she said. The properties have increased the viability of businesses and the housing availability within the city.

Its nice to be in a community thats growing as opposed todeclining, Gaffey said. You kind of want to be in a community that has a lotof vitality, and thats growing. And I think introducing new housing and newpeople into the community is one way to do that.

Despite vastly different definitions of the term high-density, the western Massachusetts city of Northampton, which has a similarly sized population to Melrose, has also worked toward increasing housing density and having mixed use developments, according to Carolyn Misch, senior land use planner and permits manager of the city Planning Board.

We still feel like its important to maintain commercial space andcommercial viability whatever that mix might be, and continue to fosterresidential development, you know, behind those first floor and above, shesaid, referring to buildings where ground floor space that fronts the streetand hosts retail.

Mixed-use includes areas where there are commercial spaces, offices, restaurants, hotels and retail with or without residential space. Additionally, Smith College is located within city limits, and the city is near the Five College Consortium.

For Northampton, a certain density must be met in order for certainservices to be feasible. For example, she said, the city is part of a regionalbike share program which is one of the largest electric pedal assist bikeshares in the country. The program just finished its second season and willbegin again in April, she said.

What we talk about is what kind of densities support public transportation, what kind of densities support bike shares, what kind of densities support different beneficial elements that people in our community define as high value. Generally to support transit, we need six-to-eight units per acre. Thats not a very high density tabulation, she explained.

Misch said that development projects in Northampton are also successfulbecause of a lot of community outreach, explaining that Northampton knew theyhad a gap in the citys housing availability because of a needs assessment. Thecity is also taking into account the need to build more sustainably.

To accomplish this goal, planners take advantage of previousinfrastructure and develop places where its possible to walk to services likeschools or libraries, she said.

Its important for us as a community to focus that development wherewe can provide access by means other than just solely relying on the automobileand building further and further out from our centers. And of course, thatsupports the commercial base as well, Misch said. We cant really have avibrant downtown if everybody lived five miles away from downtown.

One issue, which resonates across the commonwealth is community pushback on projects.

One of the biggest issues were having here is not the regulatoryframework so much as actually what gets built on the ground. And theres stilla lot of neighborhood pushback on projects, Misch said.

People are extremely risk averse about allowing change in cities and towns, Dain said.

Both Melrose and Northampton stressed the importance of good,comprehensive outreach, and fielding concerns as they arise.

It was important for us to show that weve lost units over time, Misch said. So we werent necessarily saying that were going to completely change the character of the neighborhoods and the densities, but were actually going to go back to what densities were allowed when those neighborhoods were first built. And so that helped bring along that support for those zoning changes.

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For cities and towns in Massachusetts, increasing density requires outreach, reaps benefits - BU News Service