Brookline is a great town and a wonderful place to live, but Brookline faces challenges. Housing is too expensive for all but the most wealthy. Our commercial base is small, property tax overrides are frequent, and our retail establishments don’t have enough foot traffic to enable them to thrive.
The Brookline Planning Department has been studying how to address many of these concerns and keep Brookline vital for decades to come. The Department looked carefully at our “Main Street,” the Harvard Street Corridor, and developed a plan to make this very good corridor truly great. At the same time, the Legislature passed the MBTA Communities Act requiring 175 municipalities, including Brookline, to establish multi-family districts around their transit stations.
The outline of the Harvard Street plan brought forward by the Planning Department is a great plan for Brookline. We ask that you support the Planning Department’s efforts to define the new, form-based zoning on Harvard Street from Brookline Village to the Allston line, and do our part to support regional housing needs by making Brookline more like Brookline.
