[Massplanners] Upzoning - potential vs. actual impact on building?

[Lynne D. Sweet]

Please check with lily link at CHAPA. She is working on this. Many of the new units are coming from projects that were already in the planning stages.


Lynne D. Sweet
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From: MassPlanners <massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org> On Behalf Of John Cruz via MassPlanners
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2025 11:14 AM
To: Jeffrey Robert Levine <jrlevine at mit.edu>
Cc: massplanners at masscptc.org
Subject: Re: [Massplanners] Upzoning - potential vs. actual impact on building?

[EXTERNAL SENDER]

I think it's far too early to make any blanket statements around the potential impact on development at a regional scale. The whole situation is too new and far too nuanced.

We'll need to look at real vs paper compliance, community type, development history, comparison to development in non-3A areas, and look at it through the lens that with everyone upzoning at once, it's a more level playing field. So we could theorize that if 3A never happened and Newton upzoned this area independently to build by-right, it may have attracted much more interest.

For the time being, it's going to continue to be a mixed bag.

In some communities, there will be little initial growth. In others, we're seeing more of it,here's an example of what's happening in Lexington https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/12/03/business/lexington-mbta-communities-housing/ where there's a thousand units in the pipeline under 3A. Everett is also seeing lots of units from large developments get built in their 3A overlay zone "the commercial triangle", albeit that was in an area that was already targeted for redevelopment and lots of redevelopment had been happening there prior to 3A zoning.


On Wed, Feb 12, 2025 at 11:01 AM Jeffrey Robert Levine via MassPlanners <massplanners at masscptc.org<mailto:massplanners at masscptc.org>> wrote:
I found this interesting analysis of what has happened under the VCOD zoning changes in Newton that suggests that upzoning does not immediately result in the amount of new development some expect.<https://www.newtonbeacon.org/from-floodgates-to-trickle-vcod-saw-a-remarkably-slow-start-in-2024/>

Given all the MBTA Community Act changes, and other rezoning happening in various communities, does anyone know of any similar studies in other communities? Anyone think the study I link to is fatally flawed?

thanks,

Jeff


Jeff Levine, AICP (he/him)

Associate Professor of the Practice

Program Head, Housing, Community & Economic Development

Department of Urban Studies & Planning

Room 9-511

jrlevine at mit.edu<mailto:jrlevine at mit.edu>

(617) 817-0424

https://dusp.mit.edu/people/jeff-levine

Office Hours: https://dusp.mit.edu/officehours

Personal Zoom Room: https://mit.zoom.us/my/jeff.levine (Passcode: 9-511)

Levine, J. (2021). Leadership in Planning: How to Communicate Ideas and Effect Positive Change (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429279287

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