Tag: Boston Globe Spotlight

MBTA TOD Housing Zoning Plan Meeting Held at City Hall #GloucesterMA

Posted on by Catherine

photos: MBTA Communities Convening at City Hall. Gloucester, MA. March 25, 2024. Pinch and zoom or select to enlarge.

Gregg Cademartori, long time Planning Director for the Gloucester Community Development department, welcomed a crowd composed of residents, officials, city board & commission members, and staff to a public meeting related to the newest MBTA TOD zoning requirements. There were 12 tables or so set up with 8-10 seats in Kyrouz Auditorium at City Hall. Additional seating was available along the perimeter and plenty of room for people who prefer standing. The photos show about 125 people convened.

The city hired a planning consultant, Erik Halvorsen, cofounder of RKG, to lead a public process this year–including this workshop meeting–in order to facilitate compliance assistance related to the ‘new’ MBTA TOD zoning also known as the MBTA Communities housing plan. Back in 2014, Halvorsen was the Assistant Director of Transportation for the Metropolitan Planning Area Council (MAPC) and worked with the city on several projects including in 2013-14 the “Downtown Working Group” and “Reimagining Railroad” which covered this material.

March 2014 | March 2024

Erik Halvorsen, Asst. Dir. Transportation with MAPC. June 2014. Gloucester, MA
Erik Halvorsen, Founder RKG Assoc. March 2024. Gloucester, MA

2014 Reimagining Railroad Avenue

Ten years ago almost to the day: here are throwback photos from 2013 & 2014 of zoning & planning meetings below and posted on GMG here.

June 2014
March 2014
March 2014

The MAPC June 2014 presentation can be found here

2014-06-17_Gloucester-TOD_Public-Meeting-2Download

MAPC site page about Reimagining Railroad here

Just a few months ago, in November 2023, MAPC published interactive public maps (akin to Mass Power outages or MEMA) for housing, Homes for Profit: Speculation and Investment, which you can read more about here. They hosted a panel about the research findings concluding at least 1 in every 5 homes were sold to an investor.

Mapping features for the public were promoted during the Reimagining Railroad Avenue project as forthcoming and in concert with other planning projects. They weren’t. The release followed a Boston Globe Spotlight series on housing in Massachusetts published in 2023 and continuing this year. The Spotlight installment that preceded the MAPC published data maps was this one, “Reckoning with Boston’s Towers of Wealth”.

Homes for Profit: Speculation and Investment | research Map from Metropolitan Area Planning Council #MAPC

Posted on by Catherine

Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) announced the release of a new interactive map, MAPC’s Homes for Profit: Speculation and Investment, showcasing some of their multi year research specific to housing and investment in Greater Boston.

Check out MAPC Homes for Profit map here https://homesforprofit.mapc.org/

Check out MAPC Housing Submarkets here

(You can zoom in to Gloucester and greater Cape Ann or all of the North Shore.)

Today, to mark the public release, MAPC hosted a panel featuring Angie Liou, Executive Dir. Asian Community Development Corp; Brian An, Dir. Public Policy Georgia Tech; Katie MCann, Rent Control Campaign Coordinator, City Life/Vida Urbana; and Tim Reardon, Chief of Data & Research, Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, a newly established cabinet level area in Gov. Healy administration. Prior to taking that position, Reardon had led the data and research for MAPC.

Moderators announced at the outset that there were 168 participants on the Zoom meeting including elected city officials– Sue Moran, Falmouth; Steve Owens, Watertown; Rita Mendes, Brockton; and Liz Breadon Alston-Brighton, Boston City Council–, city staff from multiple towns too many to name, and partner/organizations.

Before introducing the panelists and moderator, MAPC’s Jessie Partridge Guerrero gave a quick overview about the report findings and how MAPC wanted to focus solely on the speculation challenge in this particular report. The panelists spoke briefly about their own areas of expertise and to a one confirmed “not surprised” regarding the report findings. As they engaged in a guided discussion centered on the report, the panelists’ approaches and experiences were not all the same, nor were the comments by attendees.

Closer to home, the city of Gloucester has worked with MAPC on several projects. Some dating back to 2011 involved research that is relevant to the housing discussions since 2017–a series I wrote about and shared on GMG. You may have participated in some of the meetings 10+ years ago held at City Hall. I’ll add in some of those links below and one to the MAPC zoom meeting today. I still have notes from all the feedback received when I served on some panels.

It’s great to see some of that MAPC data and mapping available to the public in a format similar to MEMA- MA power outage map.

resources from MAPC Zoom meeting 11/30/2023

Who Owns America? A Methodology for Identifying Landlords’ Ownership Scale and the Implications for Targeted Code Enforcement

Abstract
Scholars and practitioners are increasingly interested in understanding who owns real estate in communities and resultant implications for targeted planning approaches. Yet, practitioners lack an efficient and comprehensive methodology to assess landlords’ ownership scale, namely how many properties they own in a given geographic area.

Brian An touched on AI tools to help with research. One GT paper he cited ,https://repository.gatech.edu/entities/publication/472788f9-a5e6-4d9b-8238-422d20333bcb

MAPC moderators mentioned the Boston Globe spotlight series and the Boston Globe articles on Somerville, https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/09/25/metro/somerville-tenants-rally-over-soaring-rents-gentrification-green-line-extension-corridor

PDF from the new MAPC research site

2023-nov.-30.-mapc-panel.-pdf-homes-for-profit-executive-summaryDownload