A follow-up to last episode’s interview with the Planning Department, covering what got missed and making the case for where the zoning should go further.

Things open with Andrew’s home renovation story (covered recently on MassLive): a simple bedroom addition ahead of his first child ran into enough zoning nonconformities to trigger a months-long variance wait. It’s a clean example of the initiative’s best feature — legalizing existing homes so people can make improvements without having to beg for permission.

The episode shifts to Nate’s core critique that the Neighborhood Housing zoning treats new housing production as an afterthought. The modest increase in allowable density means that few projects to add new housing will be financially viable without further zoning relief. Meanwhile, the three neighborhoods covered by this zoning have each grown by less than 1,200 people over the last fifteen years, while rent has doubled in that same span, and Boston in 2026 is one of just three major U.S. markets where rent hasn’t fallen in 2026. Slow-growing Southwest Boston should be held to a higher production bar, not a lower one. There’s also a fairness case: the ordinance grants existing buildings larger height, unit count, and lot coverage allowances than new construction, even though new buildings are demonstrably safer and more energy-efficient, undercutting the city’s own climate and safety goals.

Bottom line: support the new residential zoning, but tell the Planning Department to raise its ambitions, review results, and update the zoning on a much shorter cycle than the usual fifteen years.

Links:

* Neighborhood Housing Initiative — comment form, open through October 31st. You can also send your comments to [email protected].

* Neighborhood Housing Public Meeting (Virtual) — Sept 15, 6-8 PM — interim update on neighborhood feedback

* What Boston homeowners need to know about the city’s new neighborhood zoning plan — MassLive

* Despite Economic Challenges, Boston Rents Still Aren’t Falling — The Boston Globe

* Squares + Streets: Rezone the residential streets, too! — Nate’s 2024 essay on why the residential streets around Squares + Streets areas should be rezoned to allow even more density (up to 4 stories and 14 units) than contemplated by the Neighborhood Housing zoning.

* Make Housing Legal Again - Boston’s New Residential Zoning Pt. 1 (Ep. 5) — the interview with the Planning Department’s Will Cohen and Kathleen Onufer about the Neighborhood Housing zoning.

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Will Cohen and Kathleen Onufer from the Boston Planning Department join the podcast to break down the Neighborhood Housing Initiative — the biggest residential zoning update in decades, covering Hyde Park, Roslindale, and West Roxbury.

They start with the history: Boston’s zoning code dates to a simple 1924 rulebook, got a full rewrite in the 1960s, and has since been patched neighborhood-by-neighborhood ever since — leaving overlapping layers of rules that put an estimated 99% of residential buildings out of compliance with at least one dimensional requirement (yards, unit count, lot size, floor area, parking). Will and Kathleen explain how the new initiative closes that gap: four new districts — two “Dormer” and two “Decker” — built around the yard sizes and roof shapes already on the ground, so most buildings comply outright, and the ones that don’t are only off by a rule or two instead of a dozen.

The conversation moves into Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), where the new code collapses today’s confusing patchwork into a cleaner set of rules covering detached, attached, and internal units — all allowed across every new district — plus a 12-type ADU Guidebook meant to help homeowners figure out what actually fits their lot.

Nate pushes on the new zoning’s stated goals of preservation first, modifications second, and new infill a distant third. Will and Kathleen point to Mattapan, where a similar rezoning has been active for two years, as a preview of what to expect: ten projects added units, but the bigger near-term impact has been faster permitting for renovations and legalizing informal units already in use — not a wave of new construction.

The episode closes with how to weigh in on the new zoning — the story map and comment form below, or by email — and the timeline: the comment period runs through the end of October, with an interim update on public feedback coming September 15th.

Up next in Part 2: Nate and Andrew dig into why they think this zoning doesn’t go far enough on new infill development.

Links:

* Neighborhood Housing Initiative — story map, district details, and public comment form

* [email protected] — public comment email

* Accessory Dwelling Unit Guidebook — the Planning Department’s 12-type ADU reference guide

* Boston Tax Parcel Viewer — check your own address against the new setback rules

* Neighborhood Housing Public Meeting (Virtual) — Sept 15, 6-8 PM — interim update on neighborhood feedback

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit plentyofroom.substack.com

The episode opens with a moment of remembrance for Louisa Gag, a transportation planner and bike-safety advocate killed in a recent crash near Roxbury Crossing. A vigil was planned at City Hall Plaza on July 16, with calls to unpause the City’s pause on street safety projects.

Micah Sachs joins to explain why Massachusetts golf courses barely pay property taxes. Under Chapter 61B, a 1970s conservation law, golf courses count as “recreational land,” earning a 75% valuation discount on top of the fact that most clubs are nonprofits. Result: of 55 private golf courses in Greater Boston, 31 are nonprofit and sit on 7,000+ acres while paying a fraction of what the land is worth — revenue that could fund affordable housing or schools. They dig into real examples (including a country club redeveloped into housing once it went bankrupt), how towns use golf courses to dodge the MBTA Communities Act, and what reform could look like.

Quick update on 920 Centre Street: the public meeting was a big win, with roughly 84% of comments in support. Public comment deadline is July 31st, submit please!

Finally, a preview: the Planning Department is holding meetings this month in Hyde Park, Roslindale, and West Roxbury on a new zoning initiative to legalize existing triple-deckers and cut the variance red tape that slows down repairs.

Links:

* Chapter 61B text — Classification and Taxation of Recreational Land

* Support the Magnolia/920 Centre Street project — comment deadline July 31

* Neighborhood Housing Zoning Initiative — The Planning Department’s zoning effort to legalize missing middle housing.

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In this episode, Nate and Andrew are joined by Seamus Holland of Sixteen Penny, the builder behind the long-stalled housing proposal at 920 Centre Street in Jamaica Plain — the former site of the Poor Clares Monastery adjacent to the Arnold Arboretum, which we first covered in episode 1. After years of process, opposition, and a near-total redesign, the project has new life.

Seamus walks through what’s changed: the project has been retooled from 123 units to 160, split evenly between rentals and for-sale condos, with 36 units at 60% AMI — deeper affordability than the previous proposal, with no public subsidy. The age-restricted senior housing component is gone. The monastery itself will come down, and the new building will observe 50-foot setbacks on all sides, with nearly a million dollars in large-caliper trees planted along the Arboretum boundary on day one. They’re calling it the JP Green Monster.

The conversation covers the shadow study and what it means for the Arboretum’s magnolia collection, the switch away from mass timber construction to meet height constraints, the case for offering one parking space per unit (and why some on the Impact Advisory Group want a visitor-parking carve-out), and what Seamus would do differently if he were starting the process over today.

The project is now headed back into Article 80 large project review, with a public meeting potentially as soon as late June or early July. If you want to show up and speak in support, stay tuned!

Links:

* 920 Centre Street revised project proposal and project page on the Boston Planning Department website.

* Boston Globe: “Poor Clare nuns are ‘in a state of crisis’ as Boston holds up housing plan for years.“

* Boston Globe: “This former JP monastery is a case study in why Boston is short on housing.“

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In this episode of the Plenty of Room Podcast, Andrew and Nate dig into Boston’s stalled street safety and transit projects, including Hyde Park Avenue, Blue Hill Avenue, bus lanes, bike infrastructure, public engagement, and the Wu administration’s shifting approach to transportation policy.

Then they turn to Councilor Sharon Durkan’s proposal to eliminate residential parking minimums citywide, explaining why parking mandates raise housing costs, block incremental development, and force Boston into an outdated, car-oriented zoning framework. The conversation connects transportation, housing, political courage, and the limits of hyperlocal consensus-building.

Links:

* WalkUP Roslindale action alert on Boston street safety and accountability.

* Better Parking for Boston: volunteer group advocating for the repeal of costly residential parking mandates and better management of Boston’s on-street parking.

* Councilor Sharon Durkan’s writeup on eliminating residential parking minimums citywide.

* Boston City Council June 4 hearing on eliminating residential parking minimums.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit plentyofroom.substack.com

In the first episode of the Plenty of Room Podcast, Nate and Andrew dig into two connected questions at the heart of Boston’s housing politics.

First, they discuss the long-stalled proposal to turn the former Poor Clares monastery near the Arnold Arboretum into housing, including senior and affordable units, and why opposition over shadows and “viewsheds” has become a flashpoint in the broader fight over whether Boston will allow more homes in exactly the kinds of places where housing makes the most sense. They also talk through the larger stakes: access to parks, proximity to transit, environmental tradeoffs, and who gets to benefit from living near major public amenities.

Then they turn to Jerusalem Demsas’s essay in The Atlantic, “Community Input Is Bad, Actually” and compare its argument to their own experience in Boston neighborhood planning meetings. They discuss why public processes often overrepresent a narrow slice of residents, why repeated evening meetings tend to filter out ordinary people with jobs, kids, and other obligations, and why hyper-local decision-making so often produces delay, conflict, and too little housing.

Along the way, they also reference research on who tends to dominate local land-use politics and a book on how public engagement can be made more inclusive and more useful.

Referenced reading

Boston Globe: “Poor Clare nuns are ‘in a state of crisis’ as Boston holds up housing plan for years.”

Boston Globe: “This former JP monastery is a case study in why Boston is short on housing.”

The Atlantic: “Community Input Is Bad, Actually,” by Jerusalem Demsas.

Background on Neighborhood Defenders by Katherine Levine Einstein, David M. Glick, and Maxwell Palmer.

Veronica Davis, Inclusive Transportation: A Manifesto for Repairing Divided Communities.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit plentyofroom.substack.com