Nearly all new development projects are exciting, but a slate of proposals to turn a single-story library site in Boston into 90 or more affordable homes is worth cheering on with extra intensity. 

While mooted since the prior administration, Mayor Michelle Wu’s team has finally been able to launch the competition to replace the library building with a combined housing-and-library tower; the property is being offered through a 99-year ground lease, with a minimum bid of $14.64 per square foot of developed floor area. 

The eight proposals in the running were released to the public just before the July 4th weekend. Requirements included setting aside 19,000 square feet for a new library branch that would be leased back to the city at no cost and setting aside at least 40 percent of overall units as affordable, with preference given to projects that offer units priced for a variety of incomes.  

Responses ranged from a 180-unit tower – 80 percent of them affordable – from Trinity Financial and Norfolk Design and Construction to Evergreen Redevelopment and Urban Edge’s 85 units of all-affordable housing in a 9-story building. 

So far, so ordinary. But here’s where things get exciting: Long-term rental subsidies from the Boston Housing Authority will help support some of the affordable units. This is thanks to the BHA’s efforts to leverage the huge headroom it has before hitting its so-called “Faircloth cap” on the number of public housing units it is allowed to subsidize. 

With so little money available for affordable housing development, innovation like this is desperately needed. 

But more importantly, city officials and incoming BHA administrator Kenzie Bok have made clear this project is intended to serve as a prototype for other city-owned properties, including libraries. From the community engagement process, to the way the request for proposals is constructed, to the BHA subsidies, working out a template that can be repeated many times over will be even more important than the new homes this project will create. 

Bravo to everyone at the Boston Public Library, the BHA and city Chief of Housing Sheila Dillon and her team for getting this effort off the ground. With any luck, we’ll get to cheer many more of these projects in the years ahead. 

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