"Everyone should do their part.
That was the thinking behind the ambitious housing legislation that Massachusetts lawmakers passed just over a year ago.
The basic idea: require suburbs where the single-family home reigns supreme to do more to help address the housing shortage. The legislation mandates new multifamily zones in 175 cities and towns, known as “MBTA Communities” because they have a subway, commuter rail, bus, or ferry station, or neighbor a town that does. It sets the stage for potentially hundreds of thousands of new apartments and condos to be built across Eastern Massachusetts in the coming years."
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My 'quick' take on this complicated issue to summarize:
- Franklin is underway with the Franklin For All planning effort
- The requirement is for zoning changes (if required) to be approved by 2024 to meet the goals set by State (not yet published - currently in review process from feedback on the draft released)
- It is not yet clear that Franklin needs to do much to change zoning (unless we really want to) as it appears, we are already within the proposed goals (remains to be confirmed). In Town Council presentation on this matter, for the downtown commercial zone we already permit more than what is required. How much we already have within the downtown zone (vs what is required) is an open question
- The process will not be completed quickly, MAPC has draft recommendations scheduled to be reviewed on May 16 (recommendations not yet released)
- Once released and reviewed, the recommendations still need to be reviewed by the Economic Development Subcommittee, potential zoning changes referred by Town Council to Planning Board, Planning Board does public hearings and makes recommendation back to Town Council, Town Council also does public hearings and discussions before voting
- Please follow along this journey, we all need improvements to housing stock especially affordable housing in Franklin
Franklin For All page -> https://www.mapc.org/resource-library/franklin-for-all/
May 16 event info -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/04/hybrid-public-forum-scheduled-for.html
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| "One thing nearly everyone agrees on: Massachusetts faces a housing crisis, and needs to build more" |
Good summary!
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