For environmentalists, the housing downturn is being viewed as a sigh of relief. After years of rampant construction of homes, shopping malls and office parks, such activity has fallen off a cliff. The result is that for the first time in a long time, the amount of land being lost to development in Massachusetts has slowed. Now, more land is being preserved than is being built on.
And that’s good news for the likes of the Mass. Audubon Society.
Jack Clarke, a lobbyist for the environmental group, wrote an essay about a recent Audubon report called “Losing Ground,’ in which he discussed this recent phenomenon.
“The present lull in home construction provides an important opportunity to step back and examine how and where we develop land in Massachusetts. It also gives us time to figure out how we should proceed once things pick up again. The good news is that, for the first time in decades, we are saving twice as much land as we are developing. Thanks to the collaborative work of state environmental agencies and conservation organizations, no longer is Bay State open space gobbled up at the rate of 40 acres a day. We now protect 43 acres a day from development and consume 22. In other words, for every acre developed, two are protected. “
That’s good news if you’re an endangered species, like the snail darter, but bad news if you’re a contractor trying to put food on your family’s plate. Nationally, new construction housing starts were down 12.8 percent last month, led by a 46 percent drop in apartment building construction. Single-family home construction actually rose, a meager 3.3 percent. Locally, housing starts have been down as well. In Andover, for example, construction has plummeted. While there were 74 single-family homes built in 2004, there were only 16 built last year. So far this year, just 6 have been built.
Clarke sums up his column by pointing out that the current lull offers an opportunity for state and municipal lawmakers to rewrite zoning laws to protect fragile habitat while also providing land for development.
“There are 5 million acres of land in Massachusetts: 1 million are developed; 1 million are protected; and the rest is up for grabs. We need to protect half of that land for this and succeeding generations. The rest can be developed. However, we need to be strategic in how and where we conserve and develop land.”
Hopefully, by the time this downturn becomes an upturn, those goals will be reached, and Massachusetts can once again become a place where both endangered species and the home-building business can thrive.
