Six months after state policymakers passed a historic law to fast-track housing production, a panel convened by Gov. Maura Healey is asking them to prepare for Round 2.
The Unlocking Housing Production Commission has proposed over 50 recommendations to lower housing costs and clear the path for developing the 222,000 units needed statewide by 2035. Some of the recommendations can be achieved through regulatory and administrative action, but the majority require a legislative response.
Local housing advocates said that a number of the recommendations will be particularly impactful in the Berkshires, including instituting a state sales tax credit for construction materials, eliminating barriers to modular housing development and allowing two-family homes by right in all residential districts.
The recommendations cover issues housing developers and advocates have been raising for years, said Eileen Peltier, CEO of Hearthway. Some of the recommendations mirror those in 1Berkshire’s A Housing Vision for the Berkshires report from five years ago.
Eileen Peltier, CEO of Hearthway, said the real test for the Unlocking Housing Production Commission’s recommendations will be, “How much do municipalities feel like they are losing control with this?”
Despite the general consensus among housing advocates that these issues hinder development, the path ahead for the recommendations likely won’t be an easy one. Local control is a Massachusetts hallmark, and towns could resist transferring some of that to the state, Peltier said.
“That will be the real question — how much do municipalities feel like they are losing control with this? Because essentially what this report is saying is we can’t do it that way anymore. We can’t have every municipality add its own twist to everything,” she said.
Healey convened the commission a year ago to recommend additional changes to state law and regulations unaddressed by the Affordable Homes Act.
Sixteen people representing state offices, home builder associations, building trade unions, commercial real estate and housing nonprofits sat on the commission.
The commission’s report, released Feb. 21, outlines four main areas where the state must make headway to ease the housing crisis: economic incentives and workforce development, land use and zoning, regulations, code and permitting and statewide planning and local coordination.
Within those four categories, local housing advocates single out six recommendations that would be particularly impactful for solving the Berkshires’ housing crisis.
Brad Gordon, executive director of Upside413, said his overarching takeaway from reading the report is that the state is attempting to move away from its restrictive zoning practices, which have long stymied development.
“Themes throughout this report are really about upzoning; that is, making it easier to develop more housing and develop more multifamily zoning by right,” Gordon said.
Many towns and cities in the Berkshires have prioritized making their zoning bylaws more inclusive in recent years, Peltier said. The commission’s report includes recommendations that would further those efforts, including removing barriers to modular and multifamily housing development.
Modular housing can provide major cost and time savings when compared to stick-built homes. It is also highly adaptable, making it a housing solution not only in urban centers but also in rural areas where housing development has historically lagged due to high costs and logistical challenges, the report says.
Gordon said increasing modular housing development in the Berkshires could provide an economic engine for the community, especially if the Berkshires was to build its own manufacturing plant.
Brad Gordon, executive director of Upside413, said increasing modular housing development in the Berkshires could provide an economic engine for the community, especially if the Berkshires was to build its own manufacturing plant.
The commission also urged the state to require that towns and cities adopt zoning changes that reflect the housing goals laid out in their master plan. To further incentivize municipalities to prioritize housing development, the commission said the state should align all municipal funding with housing production goals, effectively rewarding communities for their ability to produce and preserve housing.
Another relevant recommendation involves growing the state’s trained construction workforce. In June 2024, the Associated Builders and Contractors reported that the state’s construction unemployment rate was 2.5 percent, the lowest rate for that month in at least 17 years.
To fill the labor gap and increase the speed of production, the commission recommended launching a comprehensive outreach and public relations campaign to raise awareness of career opportunities in the construction trades, and provide incentives for people entering the trades like internship programs and job placement.
Other noteworthy recommendations include offering a sales tax credit for construction to offset the high cost of materials, eliminating excess building and energy code regulations and making it easier for housing developers to access water and wastewater infrastructure.
“Infrastructure is often a very big challenge for development in rural areas and certainly in the Berkshires,” Peltier said. “There’s several recommendations related to incentives for municipalities to bring infrastructure. Hugely helpful if they can pull that off.”
To achieve these changes at the local level, the commission advised the state to expand its technical and planning assistance offerings, including consultants, online training and “pro-housing” model bylaws.
Because many of the recommendations rely on legislative action, the timeline moving forward is uncertain.
“We’re probably talking about at least a couple years to get it through the legislative process, and I think we’d be foolish or naive to think that there isn’t going to be a lot of pushback from a number of communities,” Gordon said.
Ed Augustus, the secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Living Communities, said in a news release that the state needs “to take a close look at every idea when it comes to bringing down the cost of housing for Massachusetts residents.”
Gordon and Peltier said the success of the commission’s recommendations will rest on municipalities’ willingness to cooperate and partner with the state.
“My hope is that it’s a call to action for these local communities and that they get that they need to start rolling up their sleeves and do the work,” Gordon said.