In support of the sustainable housing theme, both developments will adopt a green building concept, which would reduce its overall ecological footprint. This means the structure of the buildings and processes involved in the construction would be environmentally responsible and resource efficient throughout the buildings’ life cycle. For the development in Uphams Corner, the project will utilize and retrofit the existing structure into a green building. Some of the basic sustainable features of the building would include using environmentally friendly and sustainably sourced materials, design and construction that maximizes the use of natural lighting and harvesting of rainwater for flushing the toilet and irrigation for the rooftop garden. As New England is in a cold climate where heating dominates energy use, efforts will also be put in place to reduce the escape of heat, including air sealing, adding insulation, and improving the energy performance of windows. The rooftop will also accommodate several photovoltaic (PV) cells to help offset the cost of electricity for the building. These PV cells will use solar trackers to help optimize the angle to the sun. Lastly, the rooftop and the open space in Morton Street and Uphams Corner will boast Boston’s first tree vents, which are an array of vertical wind turbines that look a lot like a tree. While the tree vents will not produce a lot of energy on their own, the hope is they will inspire other larger construction projects throughout the city to adopt this energy producing design.

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According to the guidelines by the Boston Transportation Department, the parking requirement for both developments are 0.75 – 1.25 spaces per residential unit. While the parking requirement will be adhered to with 100 spaces and 125 spaces being provided for the Morton Street and Uphams Corner development respectively through an underground car park facility, not all the parking spaces will be made available to the residents.

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Consistent with the green building concept and transit oriented development theme, parking for residents will be limited to only 50% of the spaces to encourage transit usage while the remainder will cater to the needs of commuters using the Fairmount Line. Priority for resident parking will be for the elderly and households with disabled persons whereby those living in the affordable units will be allocated the parking for free whereas those living in the market rate units will be given the first option to rent the parking spaces at a predetermined price. The remainder of the resident’s parking spaces will be rented out through a balloting process. In addition, the developers will also offer complimentary Commuter Rail passes to 50 residents per year, and this will be done through a lottery type system to encourage those living in the building to use public transit instead of owning their own vehicle.

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The remaining 50% of parking spaces will be used to encourage residents in nearby neighborhoods to use transit as their mode of choice while travelling. This solves the first mile/last mile problem which usually acts as a barrier to people using transit. Commuters will have to pay an hourly/daily rate to use the parking facility while residents can access the facility via a resident access card. The parking facility can be managed either by the developer or a joint management committee comprising the developer and residents with the parking revenue used for paying off the capital investments as well as the maintenance of the building.

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As both developments are immediately next to the train station with bus stops located just outside the station, it presents an opportunity to pursue a transit oriented development that discourages the use of private vehicle while promoting public transit. To support this objective, both developments are designed to limit the number of available parking for its residents. However, limiting parking availability alone is not going to change the travel patterns of commuters. Therefore, the developers of this project will form a smart partnership with MBTA to nudge residents of these developments towards using public transit. Firstly, residents who do not have a parking space will be given the option to purchase an MBTA pass/ticket at a discounted price. Secondly, MBTA will improve the service of the Fairmount Line by increasing its frequency and reliability. Thirdly, Fairmont passes/tickets will afford holders a limited time free transfer to subways and local bus services, as currently being adopted when transferring using subways. Lastly, even though Fairmount Line is a commuter rail, it is designed more like a subway with regards to its location (completely within the city limit), distance between stations and fare structure, thus it would be more convenient to commuters if it was integrated with the local transport network (subway and buses) in terms of its service and fare structure. This means taking into account the timing of different transportation services and scheduling it to support each other and having an integrated mode of payments (e.g. allowing payment with CharlieCard on Fairmount Line, accept LinkPass, etc.) in order to provide a seamless experience for commuters. The adoption of these measures are aimed at encouraging transit usage among the residents by making it more financially attractive and convenient. Likewise, the service improvement would also attract residents from surrounding neighborhoods to also use the Fairmount Line.

 

Affordability

For both developments, it is proposed that the units be divided as 40% for ownership and 60% renting. The justification for this 40/60 split is to promote ownership on one end so that the owners can build equity, have security of tenure and stability, in line with the national housing policy, and on the other end cater to renters who might not have the need or financial capability to own a home yet. In addition, research have shown that renters are less likely to own a vehicle, thus more likely to take transit, which is consistent with the transit oriented theme of these projects since both developments are next to the commuter rail. Therefore, it is important to have both owners and renters in almost equal amount in the developments.

In terms of affordability, we proposed that 20% of these units be made affordable while the rest remain as market rate, with 10% allocated for ownership and another 10% for renters. The 80/20 split for market rate to affordable units is to ensure the economic viability of the project as it would be financially unrealistic to have all the units as affordable without a substantial subsidy, grant or financial assistance from the government. Moreover, the proposed 20% affordable housing units is also higher than the city’s recommendation of having only 13% of housing units to be made affordable for every development.

 

Rent-to-own scheme

This scheme is basically a deferred home ownership scheme whereby those who are eligible and offered to purchase an affordable unit but unable to secure a loan or come up with the required down payment, will be given an option to first rent the unit before purchasing. The participants of this scheme would be allowed to rent the units for up to 5 years with an option to purchase the unit at any time up to the end of the 5th year at a predetermined price. This affords the participants some time to improve their financial standing and credit rating so that they would be able to come up with the down payment and secure a loan with better rates.

Under this scheme, the participants will pay a monthly rental, a small portion, which would be set aside under the participants’ Saving Account. The monthly rental under this scheme would be slightly higher than those paid by renters in the affordable housing units due to the saving component, and adjusted every 2 years based on economic conditions but still remaining affordable. When participants exercise the option to purchase the units, the money accumulated in the participants’ Saving Account will be completely withdrawn and utilized as part of the down payment for the unit. The Saving Accounts is designed to forced participants to save in their pursuit of home ownership, thus money in the account can only be withdrawn for the sole purpose of purchasing the unit. However, the money from the Saving Account will be completely returned to the participants when they exit the rent-to-own scheme. Participants can choose to exit the scheme anytime within the 5-year period, in which case the unit would be offered to another eligible buyer. Similarly, should participants choose not to exercise the option to purchase the unit on the 5th year, they would also be required to vacate the unit as the unit is meant for ownership.

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