Environmental Issues with Upzoning
The trend in "urban planning" [even in rural areas] is to allow "clustering" of new residential building, which can be great for the environment. However, not always. This page is under construction to broaden the page beyond Acton. So stay tuned. BUT IN THE MEANTIME...
How one rezoning proposal in Acton, Massachusetts, called "MBTA ZONING" is viewed by many environmentalists. [Click here to see more about MBTA Zoning.]
First some background. What is "sprawl"? What is "clustering"? more info
So what's the problem? The problem is if someone says that "clustering is good for the environment", that's TRUE if it REPLACES SPRAWL. But it's not good if all it does is add to sprawl and is not affordable, or not necessary [there is overbuilding that doesn't help the community]. Here is what happened in Acton, where upzoning is not likely to create any housing that is affordable to existing tenants, and has put tenants at risk who live in existing small "naturally affordable" housing. Also see water info Below see illustration from environmenalists regarding the claim that upzoning helps the environment
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Are multi-family homes smaller than single-family-homes? Aren't multi-family homes more affordable?
Not necessarily. It depends on "the market". So one could say "probably", but without evidence in a specific town what buildings want to build, we do not know for sure. Here is an example of a "multi-family home" in Acton Massachusetts:
It's lovely. But if you tear down a $600K house and put up two of these million dollar condos, using MBTA Zoning, you get zero affordable housing and the loss of an existing "naturally affordable" home. Further, because MBTA Zoning is "by right", and acre of land can be split up into 4 quarter acre lots where two million dollar condos on each quarter acre, and 8 million dollar condos will exist.
In Acton there are MANY MBTA Zoning parcels of land where this can happen. BEWARE of MBTA Zoning on your town!
