New Quincy Housing Zoning Plan

Like many areas in the United States, the city of Quincy in Massachusetts today reflects a problem in providing affordable housing to its residents, more directly for young families and the elderly.

Due to the closure of Eastern Nazarene College, which announced it would cease operations due to financial problems, the city has seen in this university campus the possibility of using its large land to address the city’s housing crisis and real estate demand.

The goal set by Quincy’s administration with the university land is to establish a new zoning district that would allow the existing buildings on the campus to be transformed into housing for the elderly, without the need to spend large sums of public funds on this housing project.

The proposed new zoning, says the city’s mayor, would allow the construction of housing for the elderly, which would imply a low-impact residential use that would not significantly affect the normal functioning of the community and would provide a practical solution to the housing affordability issue claimed by the affected society, in this case, people over 50 years old.

This proposal put forward by the mayor is being studied by Quincy’s planning department, which is the only authority to approve or reject all urban development plans to be carried out in the city. Their decision, if the future housing project is approved, will be presented to the city council before the end of the current month.

Even if the project is approved and its construction is decided by the council, the municipal administration does not own the area where the university is built. This campus is private property and belongs to people outside the state; therefore, the construction of the new affordable housing project for the elderly will depend on whether the landowners decide to sell the property.

Faced with the proposed zoning change and the development of housing for the elderly within the Quincy community, many residents and people affected by the measure have opposed it, while others have applauded it.

On the other hand, consulting the opinion of the residents of the city of Quincy, many of them oppose the development of a zoning change in the area, expressing that although it is true that the city demands more affordable housing, it would benefit only a specific part of the population and thus restrict the right of other citizens to housing.

Another reason why residents resist is the environmental impact that this new zoning would bring to the city. They point out that these new constructions on open land with flooding problems could create a change in the integrity of the neighborhood, which is already densely populated with single-family homes.

They also declare that if the sale of the university campus proceeds, the municipal administration should buy it, but its purpose should not only be for the elderly but to implement mixed-use zoning for housing and commercial premises that can provide a better economy to the area and the residents of the sector. Other constructions that the administration could make, residents say, include the implementation of more spaces for recreation and education for the community in general.

On the other hand, people who see this measure as a good strategy to address the affordable housing crisis in the city of Quincy support the strategy, ensuring that these housing constructions for the elderly would promise them a safer and quieter future and would be an appropriate way to make good use of the campus that is soon to be closed. They prefer that the municipal administration, rather than foreign investors, buy the property.

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By Elías DaSilva | 06 de Noviembre de 2024.