Acton Needs to Invest in More Middle Housing

By Daniel Jiang '25

Tell me: Is your life convenient? 

Think to yourself. How do you get to school each morning? How do you go to work? How do you get a bite to eat if you’re not in the mood to cook yourself? I’m willing to bet that your method of transporting yourself is either by car, on a bicycle, or by walking.

Are any of these methods truly convenient for you, though? Traffic binds this town to an agonizing mess of backed up cars during peak morning and evening rush hours. You can bike all you want, but you’re really just playing chicken with the big semi truck that comes barreling towards you. And, of course, you can walk… with nearly the same circumstances as cycling, however. Roads are too fast, serve too many purposes, and there’s hardly any truly safe alternative to get yourself around town.

However, Acton can attempt to mitigate such shortfalls through embracing proper construction of middle housing, which can not only increase convenience for residents, but also boost affordable housing, open more space for land preservation and recreation, and increase sustainability and be less wasteful. 

There are many definitions of middle housing, but essentially, this style of development captures the “missing middle” between the two most commonly found homes in the United States: the single-family house and the multi-family apartment building, respectfully. As defined by the National Conference of State Legislatures: “Typical middle housing types include multi-unit structures such as townhomes, duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes, as well as cottage courts or cluster homes. From a design and zoning standpoint, missing middle housing is characterized by efficient use of land, thoughtful design, minimal parking, high walkability and public transit quotients, and a strong neighborhood orientation.” 

Acton comprises mostly single-family, suburban-sprawl-esque neighborhoods. It is everywhere and it is undeniable. As a result, tons of land is used to house its residents, which in turn means more infrastructure and wasted land. Middle housing aims to remove the inefficient land usage significantly, while also not ruining the town aesthetic that so many people desire these days. Using duplexes alone would shrink the land use significantly since each building houses two families — townhomes or fourplexes would most likely reduce the amount of land used even more. If built correctly, some people may not even know that these structures house multiple families, since many middle housing units are built in the same style as a single-family home. 

Just from my observations in the six years I’ve lived in this town, I can tell people here really enjoy their recreational areas. Investing in more middle housing means more freed space that can be tailored to parks, nature reserves, arboretums, or simply land conservation. That’s not to say all freed up space should become a protected woodland, though. One of the fundamental consequences from urban sprawl is the fact that all of our commercial needs are placed far, far away from where we live, because some outdated zoning code mandates that a farm stand cannot be placed next to a single family home. Condensing families into middle housing comes the opportunity of finally promoting healthy mixed-use zoning. Small zones of leisure and shopping can be fit snugly next to these middle housing structures, providing new third places—locations for people to hang out and socialize locally—for residents and tightening the strength of the community in turn. 

Finally, residents would save money. Middle housing’s affordability means that those who work within the town and don’t need a longer commute can live closer to where they work, potentially removing the need for a personal vehicle. A personal vehicle itself costs thousands of dollars a year to operate and maintain, so that’s already a huge chunk of savings. Utilities would also come at a cheaper price since there is one set of infrastructure feeding one structure that houses two or more households. You could even split the utility bill between your tenants, which might be less than whatever you’re paying for a single-family home. 

To wrap it all off, residents would also benefit from increased safety. Middle housing encourages the restructure of existing infrastructure. The town would be incentivized to build wider sidewalks, protected bike lanes, and raised crosswalks, amongst many other things. More streetlights would illuminate areas at night and roads would have to have their speeds reduced due to the high concentration of people living in the area. If we go as far as to incorporate actual public transportation, then the amount of cars roaming the roads would decrease — which would already be much safer than before. 

Of course, there are the “concerns” about the decrease of assets or the fact that “I don’t want to live in an apartment because then I get no privacy!”

It’s fine if you want to own a home just so that you can sell it off in the future for a profit—I mean, who doesn’t want to get into real estate these days? Middle housing isn’t going to drag your home value down. If anything, one of the key aspects of middle housing is that it addresses the housing situation for lower income families and provides more affordability to future homeowners. If you want to sag around your 4,000 sq.ft home all day, there’s someone out there who wants that same lifestyle, and they’ll pay top dollar for that. Especially in such a desirable town like Acton. Middle housing runs extra options for those who wish to move here, but might not have two million dollars laying around.

Now about this whole misconception of privacy. Haven’t you stayed in a hotel before? If I were really being mean I’d compare living in an apartment to just a prolonged stay in a hotel. It’s basically the same concept. Middle housing actually doesn’t make it feel like you’re at some airport hotel, believe it or not! In duplexes there is only one shared wall between your side and the other tenant’s side. I see no reason why a developer would make that wall paper-thin: in most cases, it would be extra soundproofed to provide maximum privacy. The same thing applies for all the other types (of triplexes and fourplexes). I mean, it’s 2024. If developers are skimping out on walls and soundproofing, especially in shared structures, that’s just insane. 

I’ll wrap it up here. There are a multitude of benefits for residents if we merely switch our style of living. We live in a time of change, after all, and with climate change being a real issue looming at our doorsteps, there’s no feasible way we keep living the way we do. Acton should embrace the middle housing market, open its doors for proper mixed-use developments, for the sake of the people and the environment.