Oak Grove Village

In the 1980s, housing production in Melrose came to a virtual standstill. For about twenty years, the number of new residences created in a single year could typically be counted on one hand. In 2001, Pembroke Realty, the real estate arm of Fidelity Investments, proposed building nearly 600 new apartments along the border of Melrose and Malden. A bitter struggle over the development ensued, the results of which would determine the course of affordable housing production in the city to this very day.

Fidelity had owned the 15-acre parcel for years. The mutual fund giant had come close to building a new global headquarters on the site in 1990, after which time the property languished.

In 2001, two factors made the place ripe for development. First, the principles of “smart growth” had recently gained traction, which posited dense development adjacent to transit as an ideal. The proposal was not in fact very dense, but it was directly across from Oak Grove station. Second, Melrose was running a $3.5 million annual deficit, and the development promised to bring in about $1 million in tax revenue each year.

An opposition group, the Citizens’ Alliance for Responsible Development (CARD), organized to stop the development. City government put up a united front in favor of the project. In July 2002, the Planning Board voted 7-1 to permit construction. CARD then sued to stop the development, alleging that the Planning Board had violated the open meetings law.

In the end, CARD and the city settled out of court, in an agreement that saw a slight reduction in the number of units built. What did not change was the number of affordable units. Pembroke voluntarily agreed to set aside 14 affordable units in perpetuity. They also agreed to contribute $200,000 to the city’s affordable housing fund.

These negotiations convinced the Board of Aldermen to adopt an inclusionary zoning ordinance, which would make the creation of affordable housing a legal requirement rather than an optional form of mitigation for any future development of more than five units. Ever since, that ordinance has been virtually the only way that new affordable housing has been created in the city.