Middleborough sues Healey, state over MBTA housing law requirements
Middleborough, the town said in the lawsuit, has already built housing near its commuter rail station in recent years, and should not be forced to make room for more. Adhering to the law's requirements would be a 'significant expense' because the town does not have the infrastructure to accommodate more development, it said. Lawyers for the town added that the state has gone too far in punishing towns it deems noncompliant, carrying out a 'campaign of threats, intimidation, and coercion.'
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Middleborough, a town of 24,000 about 30 miles south of Boston, has been
The town wrote to DiZoglio's office last year requesting her opinion on the law, and when officials there received her opinion last week calling it an unfunded mandate, they moved quickly to prepare a lawsuit.
For the Healey administration, this is yet another roadblock for a law it inherited from former Governor Charlie Baker but has become central to its housing strategy.
The administration
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But towns have not taken kindly to the law. Some see it as an affront on Massachusetts' tradition of local government decisions over land-use rules, and many do not want to encourage the production of more homes, particularly apartment buildings.
The law requires 177 cities and towns with access to the T
Attorney General Andrea Campbell
Middleborough officials say the town created a multifamily zoning district in 2021 that has since yielded 174 multifamily units, a quarter of which are set at affordable rents. And over the last 20 years, the town has seen 881 housing units built within a mile of its commuter rail station.
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It argues that should be enough to satisfy the requirements of MBTA Communities. But under the law, the town has to create zoning that makes room for at least 1,471 units. The zoning the town passed in 2021 only allows for 549 units.
Lawyers for the town said it has been unfairly punished for not complying with the law's requirements 'through the withholding and/or recission of more than $6.5 million in funding for school programs, infrastructure projects and other initiatives that are necessary to provide the very housing the Act was enacted to create.'
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