The argument for more housing units, especially affordable units, has been the topic of several opinion pieces in The Townie, as well as the Daily News. But do we really need more housing?
Do we need to add 200 units to a 40B-friendly project at the Kmart site, or anywhere else for that matter?
Why do we need more units? Do these additional units bring additional tax revenue? Yes. Do they bring a higher cost of doing business for the city? Yes.
Currently, Newburyport is facing a major issue with our water supply. The water treatment plant has outlived its usefulness and needs to be replaced. The estimated cost for this is $40 million to $60 million, and that was a few years ago. We have a water supply that periodically fails state water quality standards. We have a reservoir (the Artichoke) that periodically turns into a toxic sludge.
When the new water treatment plant is built, it will be built to handle the capacity of water needed at that time. If we add an additional 200 units at the Kmart site, that will add an additional 400 to 600 people to our city’s population. These people will need water, and they will create sewage. This means the new water treatment plant will need to be built larger to handle the additional capacity. The larger the plant, the higher the cost. This also means we will need a larger water supply to meet the needs of the additional population. The larger the water supply, the higher the cost.
These 400 to 600 people will also create more traffic on our already congested streets. They will need more parking spaces. They will need more police and fire protection. They will need more schools for their children. They will need more of everything the city provides. All of this will cost the city more money.
So, do we really need more housing units? Do we really need to add 200 units to the Kmart site? The answer is a resounding NO! We need to take care of the people who already live here before we start adding more people. We need to fix our water supply and our water treatment plant before we start adding more people. We need to fix our streets and our sidewalks before we start adding more people.
We need to take care of what we have before we start adding more. We need to be smart about our growth and not just build for the sake of building. We need to think about the long-term effects of our decisions and not just the short-term gains.
So, let’s put the brakes on the Kmart site project and any other large-housing projects until we have our own house in order. Let’s take care of the people who already live here and make sure they have clean water, safe streets, and good schools. Once we have done that, then we can talk about adding more people.