Ashmont TOD -Globe Editorial
Ashmont opportunity
THE MODERNIZATION of the Ashmont MBTA Station in Dorchester offers an outstanding opportunity for the kind of transit-oriented development touted by the Romney administration. But a promising proposal by a local developer to build affordable apartments and commercial space between the T station and an adjacent stretch of Dorchester Avenue has fallen close to the third rail.
Last June, many Dorchester residents were disappointed to learn that the state had rejected an application for $3.2 million in state tax credits from Trinity Financial, which sought to build 105 units of mostly affordable rental housing simultaneously with the reconstruction of the station. The developer had argued in numerous neighborhood meetings that the six-story apartment complex would not only provide needed housing but reconnect the T station to Peabody Square, filling in an area that Dorchester City Councilor Maureen Feeney describes as a ''missing tooth" infected with crime and blight.
The T has been largely supportive of the initiative, seeing that an upgrade in the adjacent area would protect its roughly $35 million investment in the reconstruction of Ashmont Station, a connector serving 17,000 daily commuters. But the state's Office of Commonwealth Development balked at providing transit-oriented grants or significant tax credits for a development it deemed too costly at $48 million.
The Ashmont setback points to a potential weakness in the state's ''smart growth" policy of encouraging denser development along transportation routes. It is more costly to build in Boston than in the suburbs, a function of land values, oddly configured sites, union labor demands, permit requirements, underground parking, and other urban costs. Any sensible state policy should take such matters into account during the competition for smart growth grants. And Boston's willingness to site affordable housing over many decades without the kinds of incentives demanded by elected officials in the suburbs should also count for something.
The Trinity developers are responding to cost concerns. They propose raising the number of units to 116, which would include 42 condominiums, reducing some of the need for subsidies while still leaving 74 affordable rental units for families earning up to 60 percent of Boston's median income. But tax credits will still be needed for the developer to generate the equity to build the project.
The Romney administration is focused on exciting efforts to promote
affordable housing through zoning reform in the suburbs. It's a great
goal, but not one that should squeeze out a signature smart growth
development along Dorchester Avenue. 
