Yesterday New Bedford’s Mayor Jon Mitchell released a housing plan aimed at addressing the housing crunch in our region. It’s a comprehensive plan with a lot of specific policy implications. It wonks out with a lot of good data. It quotes Ezra Klein!
Mitchell doesn’t pull any punches in shaming the Haven and the rest of the outlying burbs for failing to keep up with housing demand. He’s right to do so. I hope that despite this shade, leaders in the Haven are able to follow the light that Mitchell is shining with this report. They would do well to spend time digesting this plan. It should be on committee agendas. Regardless of whether they agree with all of what’s in it, they should be grateful to have local leadership that has done a thorough, systemic analysis and outlined some strong ideas for how we address some big challenges related to housing over the long term.
The Shade
The report twice highlights the fact that Fairhaven and other outlying towns are not in compliance with 40B:
Faithful Stronghaven readers will recognize these SHI stats from previous posts. Addressing the lack of affordable housing is a moral imperative. None of us should rest easy with so many neighbors facing housing insecurity. Addressing this issue also pays what Heather McGhee calls the solidarity dividend: creating a multiracial coalition drawing from all sectors of our community to address this challenge will provide a host of benefits to others beyond those directly impacted. Creating more housing of all types and distributed throughout the region will help to reduce crime and boost the local economy, building wealth locally, among many other benefits. We all win.
The Gauntlet
The report rightly calls out one of the true culprits of the Haven’s housing stagnation: exclusionary zoning. Here it is! Mitchell is boldly laying down the gauntlet to the Haven— are we going to turn our backs on this issue or will we step up? This is an opportunity for our local officials to collaborate with their New Bedford counterparts, who have a lot of expertise to offer in addition to more access to state and federal resources.
To that end, I would like to lay down a gauntlet of my own:
I hereby propose a Stronghaven summit!
Among our small but mighty group of readers are a number of town leaders in Fairhaven in addition to New Bedford housing officials. I hereby propose that representatives from Fairhaven cross the bridge to meet with representatives from New Bedford. The topic will be how Fairhaven and New Bedford can support each other in creating more housing. Stronghaven will coordinate the meeting and provide lunch, coffee, and all the encouragement I can muster.
Who’s in?! Email me directly or hit me up in the comments below.
More On the Plan
I encourage all of you to read the plan in its entirety, but here are a few Stronghaven-aligned highlights:
Easing Restrictive Zoning Regulations
According to the plan, New Bedford will “enact zoning changes to revise the minimum lot size and other dimensional requirements in order to facilitate the development of housing.” There’s a great graphic that highlights how required parcel sizes are way bigger than the typical parcel sizes throughout the city:
I’ve previously pointed to how basically every building in Somerville would be illegal to build based on the city’s own zoning. Likewise how my own ample home here in the Haven could not be built based on current codes.
Addressing these changes has the potential to unlock a lot of energy from local landowners and incremental developers. It’s time!
ADU’s!
How can you not love them? Look at these pictures— they’re so damn cute!
As I’ve argued here, I think ADU’s are the Haven’s gateway drug to other smart housing moves and zoning reforms— and they don’t even require a Marijuana Overlay District!
Pahking
This section of the plan opens with my favorite line of the whole report:
Projects often prioritize vehicles over people.
Mr. Money Mustache has been sharing some good takes on this topic recently:
New Bedford’s plan to address this issue is necessary and bold. They’re being clear that, while addressing parking issues can be a challenge, those issues should not be standing in the way of creating housing or serving as an excuse for neighbors to veto development.
Across the harbor, reducing parking minimums makes even more sense. It would be hard to convince me1 that parking is even close to being an issue in the Haven or that it should serve in any way as a barrier to further thickening our neighborhoods. That is unless we go all in on the growth Ponzi scheme and continue feeding our stroads, further necessitating the use of a two-ton steel enclosure for every trip.
Back to the Haven
The Neighborhood News (you should support Beth!) has good coverage of the discussion about the Haven’s budget woes, which will only start compounding if we take on debt to address infrastructure needs in the years to come.
How does the discussion of the New Bedford plan connect to the Haven’s budget issues? While I won’t go into depth here, I think it’s worth stating that the key driver of our town’s financial sustainability is the economic productivity of the limited land we have. The time-honored pattern of thick neighborhoods that are filled with all types of housing and that are accessible to vibrant downtowns through multiple modes of transportation is an economic engine without rival. New Bedford’s leaders know this and are pointing the way. We should take up the gauntlet!
But please try— good arguments make us all smarter!
Thanks for the summary and commentary. It seems that Mayor Mitchell is on board with Strong Towns principles. I'm very interested in seeing how this develops.
Seeing the cost of development for a single unit ranging from $300-500k is certainly an eye opener. The deadly fire this week that took the lives of two NB residents in a 31-unit boarding house could end up being nearly $10M to replace the housing units lost if they can be replaced at all. If I were a developer with my choice of projects, I would be hard pressed to choose a Greater New Bedford over Boston area with the disparity in rent and home value.
I did notice a lack of discussion regarding mixed use, although that may be in the works with the zoning proposals.
I would certainly be willing to attend a Stronghaven Summit. Keep me in the loop, and keep up the good work.