Boston city councillors agreed Wednesday it’s time to modify city zoning regulations to make it easier to build more of the city’s iconic three deckers as a way to help ease the city’s housing shortage.
Councillor Henry Santana (at large), who introduced the proposal, said that three deckers once provided a relatively inexpensive way for families, immigrants and others to get their start in Boston and that there’s no reason not to try to encourage mass production of the units once more, save the prejudices of a century ago against poor people.
It now goes to the council’s Committee on Planning, Development and Transportation for a hearing and possible drafting of a zoning change.
“Boston needs three deckers and other forms of affordable housing more than ever,” Santana said. Three deckers would be ideal for people seeking to pool resources to build their own homes, or for multi-generation families seeking to stay together, he said.
Boston still has roughly 15,000 three deckers, but building new ones now can be an arduous task because the areas where they might fit in generally have zoning that restricts buildings to 2 1/2 stories.
Developers who persist can seek zoning variances, as one developer did on Washington Street in Roslindale in 2018 to build three of the structures, but that can be an expensive process that favors larger developers, many from out of town, who tend to seek to maximize their profits by putting up larger apartment buildings or condos on lots rather than three deckers, councilors said.
Councillor Enrique Pepén (Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale) said he’s all in.
He said he grew up in his Dominican family on the first floor of a three decker, with a Jamaican family on the second floor and a Trinidadian family on the third – and that, he said, pretty much encapsulates the multi-cultural city that Boston is becoming.
Councillor Liz Breadon (Allston/Brighton) noted a family behind her home is now on their sixth generation in their three decker.
“It’s still an elegant solution to address the housing crisis for intergenerational housing,” she said.
Councillor Gabriela Coletta Zapata (East Boston, North End, Charlestown) said larger developers know how to “basically game the system” by winning approval for buildings just shy of the city’s requirements for affordable housing.
While the city recently tightened up those requirements – applying them to smaller buildings than before, the result “has been devastating in East Boston,” with long-time residents forced to move out, she said.
Coletta Zapata added that she hopes any formal efforts to make three deckers easier to build would also include creation of a program that would help residents figure out not just financing but help them find engineers and other professionals they could afford to build the new units.
The city recently started a co-purchasing pilot program to help groups of people buy smaller multi-family buildings they plan to live in.
