Help Set The Course For The Future Of Housing In Melrose

The following was submitted by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council:

Are you interested in planning for a better future for Melrose’s housing? Do you, your family, or your friends face challenges with housing in Melrose? The City of Melrose and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) ask you to join us and plan for a better housing future.

The City and MAPC recently began a process to create a new Housing Production Plan, or HPP, which will guide housing policy for the next five years. Public engagement for the plan begins this fall and will last through spring 2021. The plan will assess unmet housing needs, analyze housing opportunities and constraints, set housing goals, and recommend strategies to achieve those goals.

The process to create the plan will be community driven, with opportunities for the public to weigh in on the plan’s direction. A virtual, self-led open house will run online now through Sunday, Dec. 13, and an additional live webinar will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 2 from 7:00 to 8:30PM.

Like other communities in the Greater Boston region, Melrose has recently experienced rising housing costs, limited affordability, and interest in new housing options for young families, seniors, and others. There has also been an interest in addressing inequality within Melrose’s housing. This plan will respond to housing needs for all in the Melrose community, with a special emphasis on those most vulnerable to changes in the housing market. The process’s public engagement will highlight voices from communities of color and renters, which are two groups that have been historically marginalized in urban planning processes.

“Planning for our housing needs and providing for a range of housing options is a key goal of my administration,” stated Mayor Paul Brodeur. “As the cost of housing continues to rise, it is critical to provide more affordable housing opportunities and to identify ways to reduce barriers to creating new housing units. This planning process will build on our longstanding smart growth approach and provide us with greater control over our future growth and development. I encourage all residents to participate.”

The first opportunity for the public to engage is an online open house, which runs through December 13, and is accessed at mapc.ma/melrose-hpp-open-house. This virtual engagement event mimics an in-person public forum, where participants learn about the state of Melrose’s housing today and weigh in on goals for the future of housing. Unlike a typical two-hour in-person forum, this online open house takes between a half = hour and one hour to complete and can be taken at your own pace.

A virtual webinar on December 2 will provide a live opportunity for the public to meet with the planning team, learn about Melrose’s housing, and give input on housing goals. Registration for the webinar is accessed at mapc.ma/melrose-webinar-reg. The webinar and online open house complement one another.

In addition to these events, the City and MAPC have convened an advisory committee of residents and stakeholders, as well as focus groups to dig into specific housing needs and uncover constraints in addressing housing needs. The general public will have additional opportunities to weigh in as the plan progresses, including future webinars and online open houses. At this time, the City and MAPC are planning to conduct all public engagement virtually, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.