Question #7 would allow single-family homes to be built on lots of 5,000 square feet or more in residential areas, subject to reasonable local regulation of certain aspects of those homes.
This question, colloquially known as the “StarterHome” initiative, is clearly directed at the problem that there is not enough new housing being built in Massachusetts, and especially not enough housing for young couples and families that cannot afford expensive homes especially in the Boston area. How effective it would be in doing this is subject to debate.
The team at the Tufts Center for State Policy Analysis estimates that the proposal might produce 750 new homes a year, but they also concede that their modeling “suggests a plausible range from 350 to 1,200 per year.”
That’s not nothing, but it’s not going to put a big dent into the housing crisis here in the Commonwealth. Still, every little bit helps.
The counter-argument is, of course, about local control. There is something to be said for local control, but let’s be honest, for the people who moved like Groton or Carlisle or Longmeadow or especially Lincoln or Weston, many of them moved there in part for the schools, in part to keep the town bucolic and in part to keep the riff raff out. And the riff raff in these cases are mostly young families trying to get started. And sometimes black and brown people.
If they haven’t already voted to approve starter homes on smaller lot sizes, it’s unlikely that they’re going to do so voluntarily.
Opponents have noted, rightfully so, that the proposal does not guarantee that houses built under this scheme would have to be modest or affordable. But it certainly is more common that houses on small lots are modest and affordable.
The legislature also has the option of refining the requirements here to take into account questions related to things like wastewater capacity, and that’s probably likely here.
But in terms of sending the message that we need more starter home housing to be built here in the Commonwealth and that one way of doing that is to make it easier to build homes on smaller lots, I think this proposal is sending the right message.
