No hindrance to housingWITH THE BUDGET behind it, the Massachusetts House will take up a matter of continuing importance to the economy of the state -- an increase in the supply of housing. While two proposals have merit, the most pressing question is how to loosen restrictive zoning across the state, which the Senate Ways and Means Committee will address in its version of the budget.
The most controversial item before the House is a bill to weaken Chapter 43B, a law that allows developers to override local zoning rules in many communities if they agree to offer 25 percent of their new housing at subsidized prices for people of low and moderate incomes. It would be better if the Legislature made no changes in 40B, which since 1969 has resulted in the production of thousands of affordable housing units. At the very least, the House should resist any attempt to weaken the law's central goal: that 10 percent of the housing in each community should be affordable to people of modest means. Two other proposals deserve support. One would allow communities to set up affordable housing trust funds, repositories for money from local sources, without having to seek a special bill in the Legislature. The other would continue a program to subsidize mortgages for low- and moderate-income people. Neither 40B nor the other proposals do much to address the core housing problem -- a slowdown in overall production. The Commonwealth Housing Task Force, a public advocacy group, believes that restrictive zoning practices are to blame. It recommended last October that the state encourage communities to amend zoning rules to allow higher-density housing development, especially near transit stations and town centers. The Senate Ways and Means Committee is on the verge of including some version of the recommendations in an outside section of the budget, which will be released on Wednesday. It was not clear how much of a financial incentive communities will be offered. The task force aimed for a total of 33,000 units constructed in the new districts over the next 10 years -- enough, it estimates, to stabilize housing prices. To generate zoning changes, it proposed one-time bonuses and a state commitment to pick up additional school costs. By its reckoning, incentives should top out at $74 million a year. Many cities and towns are reluctant to allow enough housing to solve the problem. The 33,000 goal is beyond reach unless the state offers money to go with good intentions.
State government faces fiscal pressure to cover other important programs. Yet the housing shortage is a drag on the long-term prosperity of the state. The Ways and Means Committee would be doing Massachusetts a great service if it offered sufficient financial resources to break the housing logjam. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
|
