Belmont has a plan to update its multifamily zoning in the next couple years

This is a late update, but I was pleased to read in the January 20, 2022 minutes of The Housing Trust that there’s a plan for responding to the state’s Multifamily Zoning Law. According to plan, we ought to have more multifamily zoning by the end of 2023.

It is important to increase the housing supply in Belmont, which is dominated by single family homes, to address the twin issues of the difficulty of buying into the town and also the difficulty of staying in town for those whose wealth is locked up in expensive single family homes with high property taxes. By increasing the housing supply, we can ensure that Belmont provides opportunity to those outside the high end of the socio-economic ladder.

Zoning changes in the not so distant past

In 2013, town meeting passed a moratorium on tearing down single family homes and replacing them with multifamily structures. And in 2014, town meeting passed article 14 making it substantially harder to build new multifamily homes. These among many other zoning regulations are among the key reasons why housing supply is so limited in Belmont.

Changing zoning to increase housing supply is hard

The book Neighborhood Defenders analyzes zoning and housing in Massachusetts and describes just how difficult it is at the local level to pass zoning reform supporting expanded housing. The authors argue that meaningful change will almost certainly need to happen at the state level given who participates in local politics related to zoning. For an overview of the book and its arguments, this EconTalk episode is highly recommended.