MARGINAL OR MEANINGFUL?
An immersive tool for exploring the impacts of the MBTA Communities Act
- Amelia Baum, Riccardo Fiorista, and Simone Peter -
What is the MBTA Communities Act?
What are the controversies?
Use this interactive map to explore the potential effects of siting multifamily districts near different transit stations within communities. In addition to providing detailed parcel-level information about current zoning and usage patterns and how these might change if upzoning were to occur, the tool provides relevant demographic statistics about the area surrounding each MBTA station.
WHO LIVES HERE? - let's find out
WHAT'S THE HOUSING MIX?
Let's consider and in
Now we compare their zoning, usage, and demographics. The effects of creating a multifamily district near each zone may be disparate or similar. Use this information to determine where a multi-family district siting would be most reasonable for your selected community.
| Category | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main age group | over 65 years | over 65 years |
| Median household income [$] | undefined | undefined |
| Average cars per household | NaN | NaN |
| Preferred mode of transport | working from home | working from home |
In the area surrounding , there are currently undef% parcels zoned for single family residency, of which undef% are actually used as Single Family. This means that undef% parcels (colored in orange) must upzone in order to comply with the MBTA communities Act, and undef% will likely actually change their use.
In comparison, in the area surrounding , there are currently undef% parcels zoned for single-family residency, of which undef% as used as Single Family. This means that undef% parcels (colored in orange) must upzone to comply with the MBTA communities Act, and undef% will likely actually change their use.
WHAT DOES THIS TELL US?
The main takeaway from this analysis is that the
impacts of siting a by-right multifamily district vary significantly between municipalities and stations
within the same municipality.
We can also see that the population living near Rapid Transit stops are
much more likely to take transit to work than those living near the commuter tail. This has implications
for the MBTA Communities Act because it speaks to the differences in behavioral patterns of residents
living near different communities.
And how is the situation in other municipalities or for other stations?
Data sources and Acknowledgments
This project was developed with guidance and feedback from the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (MAPC). Shapefiles for the MBTA communities come from the 2020 census, retrieved from Social Explorer. Demographic data is sourced from the 2022 ACS 5-year rolling estimates (downloaded from Social Explorer). Stop zones were created from the parcel data shapefiles downloaded from mass GIS and interpreted with usage code designations for the state of Massachusetts from CityOfBoston.gov and the Zoning Atlas created by the MAPC. Additional background information was retrieved from www.wbur.org and www.mass.gov.