Growth can be green

One of us is an affordable housing advocate, the other an environmental advocate, and we have different wish lists. The housing advocate likes clean water, clean air, and open space. The environmentalist likes having a decent, affordable place to live in a diverse community with good schools.

By Aaron Gornstein and Jim Gomes Boston Globe

Are we asking for too much? We don’t think so. We don’t think we should have to choose between affordable homes and a healthy environment.

Massachusetts is suffering both an acute housing shortage and threats to the environment because our state and local governments have not yet faced the challenges of growth and land use. Consider:

The median house price in Greater Boston has increased by 50 percent over the past three years, giving our state the distinction of being the least affordable in the country.

Land is being developed at four times the rate of population growth, but that development is doing little to address our need for affordable housing. Instead, the landscape is giving way to million-dollar homes, strip malls, and big-box stores.

Boston ranks among the 10 worst cities in the United States for time wasted in traffic. Anyone trying to get to Boston by car knows this, but so do people commuting to jobs along Route 128 and Interstate 495. In addition to creating stress and taking away time from work and home life, cars are the leading cause of air pollution and related health problems.

Because of explosive growth during the last decade, many communities will face water shortages within the next 10 years. While Massachusetts has historically been rich in water, dwindling supplies spell trouble for future growth.

Sure, more houses might get built if we continued our sprawling development patterns. And more open space would probably be preserved if we made it even harder to build more housing. But either way, Massachusetts would lose.

So what does the Commonwealth need to do to promote smart growth development? Here is an agenda where housing and environmental advocates can find common ground:

Stop subsidizing sprawl.

Massachusetts needs to stop using state dollars to subsidize sprawl, be it new highway interchanges or tax breaks for companies that develop hundreds of acres of open space that you can get to only by car. The state should use its resources to encourage economic development but target them to places with the water, infrastructure, and transit systems to support it.

Get serious about affordable housing.

Chapter 40B sets a goal of 10 percent affordable housing for every city and town. While significant progress has been made, many communities are falling short. The state must start holding communities accountable, even withholding state funds from communities that fail to provide enough affordable units. But the state should also offer incentives. For example, some of the money the state saves by ending sprawl subsidies could be redirected help municipalities pay the educational costs associated with new affordable housing units.

Reform planning and zoning.

Issues such as transportation, housing, and protecting water supplies are regional in nature and can’t be solved at the local level. Nevertheless, communities need new tools that will help manage growth and support well-planned development. Some municipalities grasp at large-lot zoning and moratoriums on growth to maintain community character and limit growth. This will continue until better tools, including improved planning, are made available to communities and until Massachusetts reforms its antiquated zoning laws. The Livable Communities Act, which passed the Senate last session and will be reintroduced in the new year, would be an important step forward. So would revitalized regional planning processes.

Launch smart growth initiatives.

The Romney administration should move quickly to implement the new program for housing in commercial districts provided for in this year’s housing bond bill. The state should also develop new ”smart growth” criteria for its housing, transit, highway, and water infrastructure programs – and then conduct itself accordingly.

For Governor-elect Romney and the Legislature, the challenges of ensuring affordable housing and protecting natural resources are considerable. A good starting point is for them to recognize that their constituents want to have it both ways – and that, with leadership and creativity, they can.

Aaron Gornsteinis executive director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Association. Jim Gomesis president of the Environmental League of Massachusetts.

This story ran on page A15 of the Boston Globe on 1/2/2003.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/002/oped/Growth_can_be_green+.shtml