Micah Sachs joins to explain why Massachusetts golf courses barely pay property taxes. Under Chapter 61B, a 1970s conservation law, golf courses count as “recreational land,” earning a 75% valuation discount on top of the fact that most clubs are nonprofits. Result: of 55 private golf courses in Greater Boston, 31 are nonprofit and sit on 7,000+ acres while paying a fraction of what the land is worth — revenue that could fund affordable housing or schools. They dig into real examples (including a country club redeveloped into housing once it went bankrupt), how towns use golf courses to dodge the MBTA Communities Act, and what reform could look like.

Quick update on 920 Centre Street: the public meeting was a big win, with roughly 84% of comments in support. Public comment deadline is July 31st, submit please!

Finally, a preview: the Planning Department is holding meetings this month in Hyde Park, Roslindale, and West Roxbury on a new zoning initiative to legalize existing triple-deckers and cut the variance red tape that slows down repairs.

Links:

* Chapter 61B text — Classification and Taxation of Recreational Land

* Support the Magnolia/920 Centre Street project — comment deadline July 31

* Neighborhood Housing Zoning Initiative — The Planning Department’s zoning effort to legalize missing middle housing.

Intro/Outro music by Big Wild.

Seamus walks through what’s changed: the project has been retooled from 123 units to 160, split evenly between rentals and for-sale condos, with 36 units at 60% AMI — deeper affordability than the previous proposal, with no public subsidy. The age-restricted senior housing component is gone. The monastery itself will come down, and the new building will observe 50-foot setbacks on all sides, with nearly a million dollars in large-caliper trees planted along the Arboretum boundary on day one. They’re calling it the JP Green Monster.

The conversation covers the shadow study and what it means for the Arboretum’s magnolia collection, the switch away from mass timber construction to meet height constraints, the case for offering one parking space per unit (and why some on the Impact Advisory Group want a visitor-parking carve-out), and what Seamus would do differently if he were starting the process over today.

The project is now headed back into Article 80 large project review, with a public meeting potentially as soon as late June or early July. If you want to show up and speak in support, stay tuned!

Links:

* 920 Centre Street revised project proposal and project page on the Boston Planning Department website.

* Boston Globe: “Poor Clare nuns are ‘in a state of crisis’ as Boston holds up housing plan for years.“

* Boston Globe: “This former JP monastery is a case study in why Boston is short on housing.“

Intro/Outro music by Big Wild.

Then they turn to Councilor Sharon Durkan’s proposal to eliminate residential parking minimums citywide, explaining why parking mandates raise housing costs, block incremental development, and force Boston into an outdated, car-oriented zoning framework. The conversation connects transportation, housing, political courage, and the limits of hyperlocal consensus-building.

Links:

* WalkUP Roslindale action alert on Boston street safety and accountability.

* Better Parking for Boston: volunteer group advocating for the repeal of costly residential parking mandates and better management of Boston’s on-street parking.

* Councilor Sharon Durkan’s writeup on eliminating residential parking minimums citywide.

* Boston City Council June 4 hearing on eliminating residential parking minimums.

Intro music by Big Wild.

First, they discuss the long-stalled proposal to turn the former Poor Clares monastery near the Arnold Arboretum into housing, including senior and affordable units, and why opposition over shadows and “viewsheds” has become a flashpoint in the broader fight over whether Boston will allow more homes in exactly the kinds of places where housing makes the most sense. They also talk through the larger stakes: access to parks, proximity to transit, environmental tradeoffs, and who gets to benefit from living near major public amenities.

Then they turn to Jerusalem Demsas’s essay in The Atlantic, “Community Input Is Bad, Actually” and compare its argument to their own experience in Boston neighborhood planning meetings. They discuss why public processes often overrepresent a narrow slice of residents, why repeated evening meetings tend to filter out ordinary people with jobs, kids, and other obligations, and why hyper-local decision-making so often produces delay, conflict, and too little housing.

Along the way, they also reference research on who tends to dominate local land-use politics and a book on how public engagement can be made more inclusive and more useful.

Referenced reading

Boston Globe: “Poor Clare nuns are ‘in a state of crisis’ as Boston holds up housing plan for years.”

Boston Globe: “This former JP monastery is a case study in why Boston is short on housing.”

The Atlantic: “Community Input Is Bad, Actually,” by Jerusalem Demsas.

Background on Neighborhood Defenders by Katherine Levine Einstein, David M. Glick, and Maxwell Palmer.

Veronica Davis, Inclusive Transportation: A Manifesto for Repairing Divided Communities.