On Friday, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll unveiled the final report from the Unlocking Housing Production Commission, which includes recommendations for various policy reforms aimed at addressing the state's housing needs. This report is the result of over a year of dedicated efforts by a commission of industry leaders from both the public and private sectors across the Commonwealth. "The report offers a comprehensive set of policy recommendations intended to update Massachusetts’ housing policies, reduce production costs, boost housing supply, and ensure growth is both sustainable and equitable." Below, I will summarize some key recommendations from the report, but the complete 106-page document can be found here.
The time for incremental change has long passed. Bold, decisive, continued action is essential to ensuring that Massachusetts remains a place where people can afford to live, businesses can thrive, and communities can grow.
How We Got Here
Despite Massachusetts experiencing a consistent rise in population and economic growth, it has not constructed enough housing to meet this demand for many years. Furthermore, we have not provided a variety of housing options to accommodate the diverse needs of our residents throughout their lives. Downzonings from the 1970s in Eastern Massachusetts have put significant pressure on existing housing, leading to the price increases we see today. The zoning regulations established in recent decades are so restrictive in most areas that the majority of current housing could not be built under today's codes. Much of Massachusetts is essentially frozen in time, and we face a critical decision about our future. Are we willing to risk the future of our Commonwealth, the success of our economy, and the opportunities for our children just to maintain a distorted notion of "community character" that prioritizes physical buildings over the actual people who make up our communities?
Implementing all the recommendations in this report would entail a lengthy process to achieve significant reforms. It's crucial to note that Massachusetts is among the most restrictive states for housing development in the United States. Even constructing a small addition to your home for a growing family is subject to heavy regulation, involving lengthy, costly, and often adversarial procedures in many communities. Any substantial statewide reform efforts, even modest ones like MBTA Communities, necessitate not only legislative approval and adoption but also adoption by individual municipalities. In many communities, this is influenced by the Town Meeting, a relic of the past that presents itself as "the purest form of democracy" but is deliberately exclusionary, undemocratic, hostile, and inefficient for addressing the demands of 21st-century life. This report does not delve into it, but without serious reform to Town Meeting processes, we will be unable to meet broader statewide housing needs.
Summary of Key UHPC Recommendations
Land Use And Zoning
Eliminate Minimum Parking Requirements: "The Commonwealth should eliminate parking minimums statewide for any residential use."
Allow Missing Middle: "The Commonwealth should allow two-family homes on all residential lots and four-family homes on all residential lots where there is existing water and sewer infrastructure."
Minimum Lot Size Reform: "The Commonwealth should eliminate minimum residential lot sizes statewide except in environmentally sensitive areas and on excluded lands."
Building Code Reforms
Single-Stair Reform: "The Commonwealth should revise the state building Code (780 CMR, Sec. 10) to allow the construction of single-stairway residential buildings of up to 6 stories and 24 units with appropriate fire safety requirements."
Ensure Regulatory Changes Support Housing Production: "The Commonwealth should require a housing production impact statement (including impacts on both new construction and renovation/rehabilitation) for new regulatory and code changes, including each revision of the state Building Code, Fire Code, and Energy Codes."
Statewide Planning and Local Coordination
Create an Office of State Planning: "The Commonwealth should establish an Office of State Planning to support the pursuit of smart, sustainable housing development, by aligning statewide land use and development planning, promoting interagency collaboration, and compiling and sharing essential data to better support municipal actions and inform the development of accountability metrics."
Tracking: "The Commonwealth, via the State Planning Office, should require municipalities to report critical development-related data no less than annually and should provide technical assistance as needed to facilitate such reporting."
Empowering Municipal Housing Production
Increase Funding & Housing Ties: "The Commonwealth should align all municipal funding with housing production and smart growth goals."
Increase Support For Municipal Planning: "The Commonwealth should expand technical and planning assistance support services and programs available to municipalities."
Modular Housing Production
"The Commonwealth should take immediate steps to support a future Massachusetts modular housing industry by establishing a working group comprised of modular developers, modular manufacturers, advocates, organized labor, and other pertinent interest groups (e.g., investors, regulators, etc.) to develop a plan and design the conditions for the modular housing industry to flourish in Massachusetts
The Commonwealth needs to urgently and decisively implement the reforms detailed in this report to remove outdated obstacles, speed up housing production, and foster a more equitable and resilient future. We need to be willing to think big and be bold understanding not only the breadth of the problem but also the immensely negative impact our housing shortage will have on our collective future if it's not addressed urgently. The decisions made now will influence Massachusetts' economic competitiveness, social structure, and quality of life for future generations. Action must be taken immediately.
Jonathan Berk is an urbanist, placemaker, housing advocate, and the founder of reMAIN, a platform dedicated to advancing the development of missing middle housing in pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. This platform supports the creation of infill housing by collaborating directly with municipalities, connecting strategic development sites with local developers and new funding sources, and helping communities achieve their stated housing objectives.
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