RV 2014: People Don't Build Great Communities, Partnerships Do by Jam…

No notes for slide

Overview/transition
Discuss partnership within government
EEA
DOT
HED

Key is leadership – clear identity of where we are going from top job.

8 years of governor patrick – we have had that leadership.

The Massachusetts economy is built on innovation, education and infrastruture

The pillars of this innovation economy are the state’s universities and research institutions, the rich cluster of innovation-based companies, and the sophisticated angel, venture capital and financial services communities that help fund and mentor the pipeline of entrepreneurs.

At the heart are the skilled and creative people who choose to make Massachusetts their home. Their talent – from basic and applied sciences, software development and engineering, to precision manufacturing, design and marketing – is what attracts employers to Massachusetts and creates new start-ups every day.

Last November, Governor Patrick called on all of us to produce 10,000 multi-family homes a year through 2020.

Market rate and affordable—we need homes for the entire spectrum of incomes.

Why we do need to produce more?

The Greater Boston area has the third highest rents in the nation. With two exceptions during the Great Recession, rents have risen every year since 2003. The gap between rents and incomes is increasing.

Since the beginning of this year, home prices are rising as well.

My agency, DHCD, supported construction of the Carruth building in coordination with the MBTA’s total reconstruction of the adjacent Ashmont Peabody Square Station.
The Carruth is a new 178,000 sq/ft, six-story, mixed-use apartment/condominium building that was completed in 2008. The building includes a total of 116 apartments, including 74 affordable units. The street level contains retail, commercial and restaurant tenants and there are 80 underground parking spaces.
Between the new subway station, the Carruth and reconstruction of Dorchester Avenue, stretching from Peabody Square to Andrew Square in South Boston, the Commonwealth has invested $100 million and transformed the Square.

Rents and prices are rising because we are not producing enough multi-family housing, as this chart shows.

Based on our analysis, the Commonwealth needs to produce 10,000 multi-family units a year to meet demand in a healthy economy. That is a high number, but a number that we’ve almost reached in the recent past.

The market is already beginning to respond to the need for multi-family housing. In 2012, over 5,000 multi-family permits were pulled, compared to 2,752 in 2011, representing an 84 percent increase, and the most since 2007. As of August 31, the building permit numbers were 65% ahead of last year at this time and the best since 2006.

ULI recognized the Governor’s leadership on this issue when it presented the Commonwealth with its workforce award three weeks ago.

The multi-family housing goal fits into a larger vision for growth—one that includes the Administration’s mode shift and climate change goals.

Working closely with municipalities and regions, the Administration is committed to preserving and enhancing Massachusetts as a great place to live, work and play by developing in the right places, having a strong transportation network where we need it, and protecting our environmental resources.

Let me quickly show you one example of where we’ve done that.

All three secretariats are operating under a common strategy—Planning Ahead for Growth.

That strategy has four key elements. I want to quickly illustrate how the four elements work in practice by providing specific examples.

Identify—we have been working with municipalities and RPAs to do regional plans. We started with the South Coast Rail Corridor, then moved to the 495/Metrowest Region and Merrimack Valley.

In 2013, my Housing That Works team focused on how to encourage the development of the 10,000multifamily units through an expansion of the perceived Boston metro region to include communities north of the city (ex. Somerville, Revere, East Boston.

These are places where transit capacity, development interests and local governments in the region were expressing interest in new multifamily housing.

In that effort, we also focused on the kind of “places” that that those new units could support: specifically places where residents could live, work and play near transit, jobs; and in mixed-use neighborhoods with interesting culture, restaurants and recreation.

We are now working on a Metro North plan—nine communities, including two neighborhoods in Boston. And we will be starting a planning effort in Central Massachusetts as well.

Starting in 2011, MassWorks was created as a consolidation of several discretionary capital programs. Over the last three years, we have tried to be strategic, making public Infrastructure investments that are the key to unlocking private investment.

In May, Secretary Bialecki announced two priorities for MassWorks and planning awards. One is multi-family housing in mixed use districts. The other is economic development in weak or distressed areas.

When the awards came out in November and December, we had made a strong statement about our commitment to building multi-family housing. We funded 20 projects that supported the creation of 2,518 multi-family homes.

ASSEMBLY ROW IS THE CREATION OF A NEW MIXED USE DISTRICT, WITH A NEW SUBWAY STATION.

Background notes:
Transit oriented development
Mixed use development
Large scale delivery of market rate housing
Designated a Growth District in 2008
Consistent with the MAPC MetroFuture regional plan.
Funding Sources:
$50M I-Cubed
$25.5M MassWorks Infrastructure Program
$12M MassDOT Funding
$2M Growth District Grant
$25M DIF
$12M American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
$15M Private Investment (FRIT)

Brockton was awarded over $11 million in additional funding to support redevelopment of Enterprise Block, less than two blocks from the commuter rail station and in downtown Brockton.

Phase I will feature 113 new housing units, including 71 apartments, 29 of which will be affordable. The remaining 42 units will be live/work space for local artists, featuring an artist gallery and office space on the first floor.

The commercial component of Phase I will include the rehabilitation of the now vacant Enterprise Building into 52,000 square-feet of office space.

Phase II will include 102 new units of housing.

Melrose was awarded a $960,000 grant to support infrastructure improvements near the Highlands commuter rail station. The improvements support public transit use and pedestrian/bike use in this neighborhood commercial node.

This year, MAPC completed a corridor study, looking at an area including the Cedar Park and Highlands commuter rail stations.

MAPC recommended new zoning districts to promote housing/mixed use development. Melrose is working on the zoning changes now. MAPC also identified specific TOD opportunities in the corridor.

This is a great example of how fast a municipality can move if it has a vision—and how it can leverage outside support and expertise.

Amesbury was awarded $1.5 million in additional funding to support the Lower Millyard Project in the City’s downtown.

The City plans to develop the 1.6 acre site into an urban, riverfront park known as Heritage Park. The development will include pedestrian bridge connections to the newly constructed Nicolas Costello Transportation Center and Senior Center, to downtown, and the rail trail.

The final project will also include approximately 289 new units of housing, 30,000 square feet of office space and a multi-story 10,500 square foot commercial property.

RV 2014: People Don't Build Great Communities, Partnerships Do by James Arthur Jemison

Rail~Volution

RV 2014: People Don't Build Great Communities, Partnerships Do by James Arthur Jemison