It may be just two weeks since Charlie Baker won his big victory, but there’s one thing you can be fairly certain of: A gaggle of hopefully more business-friendly regulators will soon be calling the shots on development, housing and environmental issues on Beacon Hill thanks to the Republican governor-elect’s hard-fought, squeaker-of-a-victory over Martha Coakley.
The changing of the guard kicked off last week with word that Jay Ash, the development-friendly city manager of Chelsea, would get the nod to run the state’s housing and economic development secretariat.
With a possible exception or two, it will be sayonara to a whole bunch of Patrick Administration stalwarts. That wouldn’t necessarily have happened under Martha, who based her campaign, as far as anyone could tell what it was all about, on extending Patrick’s legacy.
Let’s face it, Deval is blessed with a golden tongue when talking up development or whatever the topic of the day is, but our environmentally-hip governor and his minions also increasingly buried tower developers and homebuilders alike under growing mountain of red tape and regulatory costs in their zeal to save the planet.
In fact, the coming leadership sweep may present a rare opening for both developers and homebuilders to lighten this increasingly heavy load.
For that matter, it also offers a major opportunity to press for some real progress – rather than the Potemkin variety popular in recent years – on making ridiculously expensive Massachusetts an easier place to build badly needed homes, condos and apartments.
“We are looking forward to a Baker Administration,” said Scott Colwell, president of the Builders and Remodelers Association of Greater Boston. “The biggest problem we face is local opposition to new housing.”
Out With The Old
So who are goners out there?
Obviously Greg Bialecki, the current secretary of housing and economic development, leads the list, with Chelsea’s Ash now slated to move into the job.
While Bialecki has done a solid job, he’s been running the crucial agency for seven years, and these aren’t lifetime positions, as one development observer dryly notes.
Other Patrick appointees to watch include Aaron Gornstein, undersecretary of housing and community development, and Maeve Vallely Bartlett, secretary for energy and environmental affairs.
Richard Davey, the state’s transportation secretary, already gave notice a month ago. His successor will have a key role to play in repairing the state’s tattered roadways and bridges that are the foundation for all new development, while also making key decision on commuter and subway line extensions.
One exception is Steve Crosby, chairman of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, who is overseeing the development of billions in new casinos across the state. With his roots going back to Republican administrations in Massachusetts, the state’s gambling czar looks pretty safe for the moment.
Some of the chieftains of the Bay State’s many and maybe too numerous independent economic development and building authorities may also be headed out the door, notes David Begelfer, chief executive of NAIOP Massachusetts, which represents developers across the state.
In fact, Baker questioned during the campaign whether Massachusetts really needs multiple, quasi-independent housing and economic development authorities all running around doing similar things.
“You have different boards that are not always necessarily pursuing the same direction,” Begelfer said.
It will surely take a few weeks at least for Baker to put together his entire team together and it’s too early to what, if any, state authorities will be “consolidated.”
But whomever takes over can expect to get an earful from developers and builders large and small from across the state, especially when it comes to proliferation of ever more costly energy, environmental and safety regs.
The Patrick Administration’s aggressive push for increasingly stringent energy efficiency requirements has been a major sore point for developers across the state.
State building regulators voted last year to adopt the International Energy Conservation Code, which is expected to boost energy efficiency by over 20 percent in everything from new buildings to new homes.
But Deval and his outgoing administration have gone beyond that to push through “stretch energy codes,” which allow green-righteous local cities and towns to heap additional mandates atop that already daunting baseline. This creates a regulatory nightmare for builders, while seeming to defeat the whole purpose of having a statewide building code by allowing every community to effectively set its own rules in this key area.
And the new requirements are expensive. In fact, they add much as $10,000 onto the cost of every new home built. In a state with already some of the highest housing costs in the country, that is a significant jump, contends Colwell, head of the Greater Boston builders group.
State fire marshals, meanwhile, continue to lobby for sprinklers in new residential homes – which could add thousands of dollars more without significantly boosting fire safety, Colwell argues.
“We are hoping a Baker Administration will at least provide a balanced approach to energy code matters,” he said. “Everyone wants to save energy, but there is only so much people can pay for a home.”
Fresh Approach On Housing
The Patrick Administration devoted most of its attention to encouraging the development of new apartments near train stations. That’s great if you are young, footloose and like to live next to the T, but it is at best only a partial solution.
Patrick never made a serious attempt to tear down the many and increasingly absurd local rules and regulations that effectively bar anything but McMansions or the occasional apartment complex from being built across much of Eastern Massachusetts.
Frankly, the dull-as-drying paint gubernatorial campaign didn’t inspire much confidence that a new approach might be in the offing – at least in this corner.
After, all Baker didn’t say much on the campaign trail about housing – neither candidate even managed to even utter the phrase “home prices” during their various and tedious debates.
However, others are more hopeful than I am.
Begelfer believes that Baker won’t shy away from tackling the state’s housing woes, especially the dearth of new construction that keeps home prices going up, year after year after year.
To Baker’s credit, he did mention the need for “zoning reform” during the campaign, so maybe where there’s a whiff of smoke, there just might be a little fire.
“Everyone is talking about the whole problem of middle-income housing, not just rental housing, but starter homes,” Begelfer said. “I do believe this administration is going to clearly understand they have got to make an impact on that problem.”
“They have to make some progress – the status quo is not acceptable,” he added.
Here’s hoping he’s right.
Email: sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com
