Over 80,000 Housing Units Could Be Built On Public Land In Boston Area, Report Finds

Cities and towns in the Greater Boston area have the ability to generate tens of thousands of new units of housing on government-owned properties to help alleviate the housing shortage, according to a new report. 

If just 5% of land owned by state and municipal governments in Greater Boston was used to build housing, Massachusetts could add 85,000 new homes, according to the 2024 Greater Boston Housing Report Card, released this week. 

The Boston Foundation, which conducted the study, made this calculation by looking at the MBTA Communities law's minimum density metric of 15 units per acre and the amount of vacant public land that could take on this type of development, MassLive reported.

The report says roughly one-quarter of the land in Greater Boston is public land, with 7% estimated to be owned by the state and 17% to be owned by municipalities.

Much of the land is used for public services including safety, education, transportation, housing and conservation. However, Boston Foundation wrote that roughly 95,000 acres of municipality-owned land and 17,000 acres of state-owned land could be developed.

The report states that identifying what land can be developed is difficult, and when a developer does identify these parcels, there are complicated procurement laws that add costs and drag out processes. 

Local opposition can also influence the impact public land can have on alleviating the housing crunch. The report says towns and cities have spent $50M since 2010 to buy public land in an effort to halt at least 13 developments.

In an effort to curb this, the report recommends changes to the state's Chapter 30B, which regulates the sale and development of public parcels. The policy doesn't create ways for developers to speak to the communities they plan to develop on, leading to miscommunications on projects can be feasible for a site. 

In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu launched a citywide audit in 2022 that identified 9.5M SF of potentially underutilized parcels that could become housing. Since then, the city has undergone several requests for proposals to get this land developed.

The city's planning department approved the redevelopment of the West End Library to add 119 affordable housing units on top of the library. This spring, Trinity Financial submitted plans for 700 units as part of a mixed-use development in Charlestown, and Related Beal and Dream won the tentative designation to build a 400-unit project in Roxbury.