As much as 55,000 gallons of precipitation falls on a 2,000 square foot roof in New England each year, approximately the same amount of water that would be used by three people living in a water-efficient home.

Productive relationships between municipalities and the development community attract economic investment and the opportunity for meaningful growth to Metro Boston.  These relationships should be encouraged. Long-term prosperity depends on it.  Where the permitting process brings satisfactory results, the applicants, the public, and the economy stand to benefit.  MetroFuture recommends that municipalities adopt a set of best practices that can make permitting more predictable, equitable, cost effective, and efficient.  

To ensure that the region’s housing is accessible, visitability and “universal design” are important issues.  Often confused as an issue limited to special needs populations, visitability and universal design include principles such as providing smooth ground surfaces at entryways, wide interior doors and hallways, and installing handles with levers rather than knobs.  The universal design movement has grown largely because of the aging U.S. population.

The production of affordable units is only one component of increasing regional equity.  Repeated studies demonstrate that housing discrimination still exists in Metro Boston.  Extensive paired testing has uncovered a pattern of discrimination in the rental, purchase, and financing of properties to people of color, families with children, and people receiving housing assistance. These tests show that people of color experience discrimination in at least half of their attempts to secure housing in Greater Boston.

“Scattered site” housing developments comprise multiple units built on multiple parcels, often in single-or multi-family homes.  This model is in contrast to affordable housing development in which all affordable units are built in the same location, either as a stand-alone development or integrated into a development with market-rate units.  Scattered site housing construction has advantages because developers can recognize some economies of scale that go along with construction of multiple units, without concentrating low-income residents or needing large parcels.&nb

Currently, there are a wide variety of practitioners, researchers, advocacy organizations, and agencies working on housing issues in Metro Boston.  No formal entity operates at the regional level to establish goals and make policy recommendations.  

A Regional Housing Advisory Committee could advance regional housing goals and related activities, review progress on achieving housing goals, and address implementation issues.  Successful examples of regional housing task forces and committees can be drawn from throughout the U.S.

A “Greenfield Fee” is a surcharge to development proportional to its impact to natural resource lands.  Developers of large, sensitive, or rare parcels pay a larger amount; while developers of smaller, less critical parcels pay less.  Impacts would be assessed using a consistent and predictable formula, based on a variety of criteria.  Developers could provide mitigation on- or off-site to offset the fee.  For example, if proceeds from the sale of agricultural land are reinvested in agricultural activity locally (in the same or adjacent municipality).

Many developers are already champions of smart growth, building innovative projects and fueling a trend in which “smart growth” is becoming a marketing label (that is sometimes misapplied).  Their interests could naturally align with MetroFuture’s goals, creating the opportunity for mutual-beneficial education, network building, and advocacy.