Housing 'Squandered' Near MetroWest MBTA Stations, Study Says

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Major train and bus stations between Worcester and Boston could handle up to 253,000 new units of housing, and many stations — especially along the MBTA Worcester line — are woefully under-developed, according to a new study from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership.

The average housing density across all transit stations in the area — a group that includes all subway stops and all MBTA stations — is about 6.5 units per-acre, according to the study. The MBTA stations in Framingham, Natick, Ashland, and Worcester all fall below that mark. An ideal housing density could be as high as 12 to 26 units per acre — a number only seen in dense areas like Roxbury and the South End.

The lone exception in MetroWest is the West Natick station, which is just slightly above average with 6.6 units per acre. Framingham had a density of 6.2 units per acre, downtown Natick at 5.3, and Ashland at 1.9. Worcester, New England's second-largest city, only has a density of 3.1 units per-acre near Union Station.

The study highlights that low-density areas are "squandered opportunities" to build housing, which is in short supply in the Boston area. The numbers are just estimates, and the authors acknowledge barriers to housing in some neighborhoods, like commercial zoning.

"While this math is incredibly simple and ignores some important neighborhood factors, it does show the potential that re-imagining these high-access neighborhoods could have in terms of better supporting transit while simultaneously making a huge dent in our chronic housing supply problem," the study says. "Of course, every station area is different, and there are places where even greater levels of density make sense, and surely some places where market demand may not support large numbers of additional new units."

See a map of stations and read about the methodology on the Massachusetts Housing Partnership website.