Thirty-five years ago, Massachusetts passed Proposition 2½, which limits residential property tax increases to 2.5% per year. The cost of Town’s services grows more than 2.5% annually and the majority of Brookline’s revenue comes from residential property taxes, so we have had to pass periodic overrides to pay for our municipal services. Since Proposition 2½ was passed, Brookline has commissioned a number of studies to find ways to reduce the property tax burden that falls on existing homeowners and renters.

Every study determined that Brookline must allow more mixed-use development along our transit corridors to grow our tax base.

Since 1980 Brookline has had some successes, including several new hotels. But most of our mixed-use corridors and larger sites remain underdeveloped. As a Town consultant recently concluded, increasing our tax base with mixed-use development remains difficult because Brookline’s “zoning is not aligned with feasible scale and uses,” making the process for rezoning and approvals “long, costly and unpredictable.”

Brookline has begun to find solutions to that problem.

In November of 2023, Town Meeting overwhelmingly passed the Compromise Warrant Article, which rezoned Harvard Street to meet the requirements of the state’s MBTA Communities Act. I am proud to have been a leader in developing the coalition that brought Brookline into compliance with state law and, crucially, also created the potential for new, tax-paying, mixed-use development on Harvard Street.

This January, Brookline’s Department of Economic Development and Long Term Planning reaffirmed that changing our zoning to allow mixed-use development along our main corridors and on our larger sites remains Brookline’s best tool to grow our town’s income. I believe that, by working together, we can continue the work started on Harvard Street and find new opportunities, including the Chestnut Hill Office Park, to make our community more fiscally sound while also addressing the housing and climate crises.