The Latest from CommunityScale
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What is the difference between HUD’s income limits and percent of median household income?
HUD’s Income Limits and a simple percentage of median household income are often treated as interchangeable, but they are not the same thing. This post unpacks the difference between the two, explaining how HUD…
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Kennebunk Housing Needs Plan
CommunityScale developed the Kennebunk Housing Needs Plan (2024-2034) to meet the Maine town’s growing demand for diverse, affordable housing. The plan profiled local people and housing stock and set a production target keyed to…
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Lancaster Housing Production Plan
The Lancaster Housing Production Plan (HPP) for 2024-2029 provides an updated roadmap to enhance affordable housing options in the town. Building on the foundation set by the 2019 HPP, this new plan focuses on…
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Greenfield Housing Plan
CommunityScale completed a citywide housing plan for Greenfield, Massachusetts, led by co-founding principal and Greenfield resident Jeff Sauser with Levine Planning Strategies. The project paired a comprehensive Housing Needs Assessment with interactive community engagement…
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Melrose Zoning Recodification
CommunityScale, Levine Planning Strategies, and Blatman, Bobrowski, Haverty and Silverstein, LLC worked closely with the Melrose City staff and Planning Board to complete a comprehensive recodification of the city’s Zoning Ordinance. This collaboration modernized…
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Housing plan as website? Check out our new online dashboard for Greenfield!
At CommunityScale, we are constantly looking for new ways to integrate technology and innovation in our work. In particular, we bringing more of the planning process and outcomes into digital and online formats where…
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What is 40B Safe Harbor?
Understanding Safe Harbor is essential for Massachusetts municipalities and developers navigating Chapter 40B, the Comprehensive Permit Law. This post walks through how a community can claim Safe Harbor from 40B developments, covering the three…
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The Affordable Homes Act and planning in Massachusetts communities
CommunityScale is enthusiastic about Massachusetts’ Affordable Homes Act and the change it can bring to livable, sustainable communities. This post looks at the legislation through a planning lens, flagging three provisions worth watching: $25…
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How life stage has factored into renting or owning since 2010
How does owning or renting relate to household independence across the life course, and has that relationship changed? Using Census ACS 5-year data from 2010 to 2022, CommunityScale traced how tenure shifts across age…
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Reflections on the State of the Nation’s Housing report
The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies released its annual State of the Nation’s Housing report, and CommunityScale dug into the most important changes. Single-family construction proved resilient at a 1.06 million annualized rate…
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Quarterly newsletter – Happy start of summer
CommunityScale’s summer 2024 quarterly newsletter rounds up a busy stretch of work spanning New England to Indiana and Virginia to Honolulu. It samples what the team has been thinking about, from how housing demand…
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Launching a Housing Needs Plan for Kennebunk
CommunityScale and Levine Planning Strategies announced a collaboration with the Town of Kennebunk, Maine to develop a Housing Needs Plan addressing housing production and cost burden over the coming five and ten years. The…
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Regional Housing Study for the Elkhart-South Bend region
The Elkhart-South Bend region encompasses a wide range of urban, suburban, and rural communities across Elkhart, Marshall, and St. Joseph Counties, each facing its own housing challenges. CommunityScale completed a Regional Housing Study for…
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Greenfield Housing Study public meeting video
Co-founding principal Jeff Sauser led a public discussion of housing needs in Greenfield, Massachusetts, presenting CommunityScale’s needs assessment, which weighs both local pent-up demand and regional market demand to set priorities and goals. The…
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City & County of Honolulu Housing Plan
Honolulu County hosts one of the country’s most cost-burdened housing markets, where widening affordability gaps threaten to drive out the local workforce. In 2024, CommunityScale developed a Housing Plan for the City and County…
