Not flinching

By Amy Dain
September 26th, 2008

Two years ago a state senator commented to me that after the legislature addresses health care, the next big issue on the agenda will be housing. With development stalled, the need to plan for new housing now seems a lot less urgent.

Tough politics aside, now is the time to plan for the next wave of development pressure. Carrying that charge, Undersecretary Greg Bialecki has not flinched.

He also has not yet released the draft bill for zoning reform that he has been circulating with the Administration. He did hand out the preamble and definitions from the draft.

The basic concept is to let communities opt into a partnership with the Commonwealth. In exchange for planning for new growth and meeting certain goals, participating communities would receive regulatory relief, and potentially dollars too.

If you make the performance standards for participating communities too rigorous, communities will not participate. If you make the standards weak, then the legislation does not achieve much.

Mr. Bialecki argues that he can find the right balance. I will be able to comment on that when I see the draft.