Last week, the Malden Planning Board rejected a 100% affordable housing project proposed by a non-profit organization. Just last month, the same board voted unanimously to reject common-sense recommendations, developed by the CIty's own professional consultant, to encourage more housing production in Malden. Unfortunately, these actions reflect a troubling long-term pattern of anti-housing and anti-development bias in Malden’s City Government.

We are calling on the Mayor and City Council to choose a new path:

1. Make it easier to build housing

Malden makes it nearly impossible to build housing. Our zoning and land use requirements are nonsensical and archaic. The City imposes crippling minimum parking, density, lot size, and income restrictions that virtually eliminate housing development opportunities. In the three years since its enactment, not a single development has even been proposed under the City's MBTA zoning because the requirements are so hostile to housing. By comparison, 1,620 housing units have been approved or are pending in Lexington under that town’s MBTA zoning.

As a result, Malden is largely stagnant while virtually all our neighboring municipalities are embracing housing developments that will enrich their communities and their tax bases.

It is far past time for Malden to overhaul its zoning and land-use regulations to expand housing inventory and match its own articulated values and regional commitments. Malden cannot wait for the Comprehensive Plan to finish to begin this work; the need is too great and the stakes are too high today.

2. Overhaul the Planning Board

The Planning Board needs new voices and perspectives. The average member has served on the board for 13.5 years. The Chair has been a member for over 40 years and the next longest-serving member has served for 27 years. While this level of public service is laudable, it also stifles opportunities for new voices and approaches. Malden deserves a Planning Board that better represents the broad views and values of our diverse city.

When Planning Board terms come up for renewal, the Mayor and Council must make a concerted effort to solicit and welcome new applicants for member positions and not simply reappoint existing members. This process must be inclusive, fair, transparent, competitive and open to the entire community. Importantly, the Mayor and Council must objectively evaluate appointments based on the qualifications and experiences of applicants and ensure new voices are part of the process.

3. Approve 245 Bryant Street, and more new housing developments moving forward

The applicants for 245 Bryant Street simply sought a permit to make minor modifications to a previously permitted affordable housing project. But even that was too much for Malden's Planning Board. When so many are struggling with housing security, 36 new affordable units matter. We ask that the City Council and Mayor's Office do everything in its power to ensure that this project moves forward, despite the Planning Board's failure to award the necessary permit.

Moving forward however, the City should not limit new housing opportunities to those sponsored by non-profit entities that are 100% income-restricted. Malden needs both market-rate and affordable housing development. We need new mixed-use development. We also need to empower existing Malden homeowners to renovate their own properties and to add smaller-scale new housing in the form of two-families, triplexes, or fourplexes.

Malden is at a crossroads and faces important choices. We call on the Mayor and Council to choose a new path to embrace growth and new development, and the new revenues that come with them, and in the process build a stronger, more vibrant and resilient community.

Livable Malden stands ready to work with you and the broader community to advance these efforts, but leadership from the Mayor and Council is vital for this work to succeed.