Actions & Events | Housing4allgloucester

Action Items
& Events

As we continue to grow our coalition of local support, working together to address Gloucester's housing challenges, we hope to also create public awareness and community discussions about our need for housing development and how more affordable housing can benefits our community. We encourage you to follow our efforts. Better yet, Join Our Efforts!

Your input is needed for Gloucester's Comprehensive Plan Initiative!

The Gloucester Comprehensive Plan Initiative (CPI) will be the foundational policy document for our City - guiding local decisions about future growth, preservation, and change for the next 10 years. It's critical that we, as members of the community and advocates for affordable housing, make an effort to engage in this process.

The CPI is designed to guide local decision-makers in the following areas:

land use
demographics and housing
employment and economic development conditions
natural places, ecosystems, and sustainability
historic, arts and cultural resources
transportation
public facilities & services.

There are multiple opportunities for community members to get involved and help shape the City’s future:

Visit the project website: Gloucester Comprehensive Plan website to learn more about the Comprehensive Plan process and how to stay involved!
Take the Community Survey! — Answer questions about the City’s strengths and weaknesses to help identify what needs improvement.
Host a Meeting-in-a-Box! — Join together with friends, colleagues, and neighbors to discuss your ideal future for Gloucester. The packet is currently available in English and Spanish. A Portguese version should be available soon.
Submit ideas on the Crowdmapping tool! — Have you ever looked at a place in Gloucester and had an idea about how to make it better? Our interactive Crowdmap lets you make place-based recommendations for the City’s future.
Share this information with others! The Planning Board has a goal of reaching at least 3,000 people. Let's help them get there by sharing this information as widely as possible!

Members of Housing4All Gloucester are happy to assist if needed for any meeting-in-the box planning. Reach us by email at housing4allgloucester@gmail.com.

Questions can also be directed by email to the City at compplan@gloucester-ma.gov .

SPEAK UP FOR LOCAL HOUSING:
How to Have Pro-Housing Conversations in Gloucester

In place of our monthly meeting,
we are hosting the following event and hope you will join us
and bring a friend!

WHAT: A Training Opportunity from Housing4All Gloucester
WHEN: Wednesday, September 27, 2023 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM ET
WHERE: Rose Baker Senior Center, 6 Manuel F Lewis St, Gloucester

You don't have to be a housing or zoning expert to have an interest in (or advocate for) more affordable and abundant housing in Gloucester. All of us have a housing story to share. One of the best ways to build a robust pro housing movement in our city is to build connections one conversation at a time.

In this training, facilitated by our friends at Abundant Housing MA, attendees will learn about the successful elements of initiating and sustaining one-on-one conversations with neighbors, family, friends, and even your city councilor. Practice initiating housing conversations in the session with local housing advocates from Gloucester ECCO and H4AG.

All welcome to attend. Registration is required, but training is free. Light dinner fare and child care provided.

Join us! Let's talk Gloucester housing!.

116 East Main Street Call To Action Update

Many, many thanks for taking action through Housing 4 All Gloucester's Action Network petition campaign to express your opinion to City Councilors on the importance of holding the developer at 116 East Main accountable to the Inclusionary Zoning requirement to provide the one unit of deed restricted affordable housing!

We believe EVERY SINGLE UNIT of affordable housing is critical to meet the demands of our local housing need. We also believe this location matters, as it demonstrates that creating affordable housing is needed and possible in every neighborhood of Gloucester.

We are happy to report the developer has withdrawn his request.!

Thank you to ALL who participated in our campaign which generated a total of 729 letters in total submitted to City Councilors . The full Council will make their final vote to accept the request withdrawal at next council meeting.

Thank you to Councilors Jason Grow, Val Gilman, and Tracy O'Neill for your careful and diligent efforts throughout the Planning & Development subcommittee process.

Also, thank you to our friends at Abundant Housing MA for providing the support and tools to help us mobilize this effort.

Multi Family Zoning Requirement for MBTA Communities / Transit Oriented District (TOD):

A new Massachusetts law (often referred to as the MBTA Zoning or TOD – Transit Oriented District ) will require Gloucester to have at least one zoning district near our MBTA station where multifamily housing (3 or more units) will be permitted by right.

H4AG believes that:

Gloucester deserves a thriving vibrant downtown area that preserves its economic, social and cultural diversity!
The land around Gloucester’s train stations is underutilized
Transit Oriented Development (TOD) offers a way for us to revitalize these areas; but any TOD planning that happens as a result of this new state law must also include incentives for new housing that is actually affordable to the average Gloucester family!
Failure to comply with this law will result in financial losses to the city through MassWorks money and to the Housing Authority for existing housing