Using an already permitted, half built, largely leased, project doesn’t help address our region’s housing crisis. It’s something Amy Dain at Boston Indicators calls paper compliance rather than meaningful compliance. It doesn’t add any new homes for young adults or new families, or add diversity. It doesn’t create new opportunities for downsizing seniors. It doesn’t add the homes our local employers need to attract and retain workers. But it passes the compliance test.
The remainder of Wellesley’s plan plays it safe too. It avoids up-zoning single-family residential areas near its three commuter rail stations, relying instead on existing, mostly commercial parcels that already allow, or have, multi-family units now. Nor does it increase allowed building heights, one of the tools that can help new projects pencil out.
Anyone who cares about meeting Massachusetts’ housing needs should be worried that — not just Wellesley — but dozens of other MBTA Communities municipalities are likely looking for their own path to paper compliance, resulting in very few new homes ever being built.
Source: Is ‘paper compliance’ with the MBTA Communities law good enough? – CommonWealth Beacon
